- Participants covered a total of 82,000 kilometres during the race and completed over 180,000 virtual checkpoints and challenges with the District Race app
- The Ultimate Explorer Challenge winner was awarded a round-the-world trip courtesy of District Race
[KUALA LUMPUR, NOVEMBER 4, 2019] – The first-ever District Race in Malaysia saw over 8,000 participants conquer the streets of Kuala Lumpur in an immersive tech-fueled urban race.
Presented by AIA Vitality, District Race is a ground-breaking technology platform that encourages Malaysians to lead active, healthy lifestyles by motivating people to get active through exploration with the District Race app. Powered by cutting-edge augmented reality and location-based technology, participants navigated through the city and ran a collective distance of 82,000 km, completing over 180,000 virtual challenges and checkpoints.
District Race Malaysia was launched earlier in June this year, activating various grids in Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Melaka and Johor Bahru. This allowed all Malaysians to explore and experience District Race for free before the grand finale at District Race KL by AIA Vitality. In the past five months since its launch, more than 5,000 participants took to the task and completed the various challenges and explore their cities all across Malaysia
Earlier yesterday, participants, also known as ‘Explorers’ were flagged off at the historic Dataran Merdeka. With no set route or distance, participants created their own strategy and chose how they explored Kuala Lumpur. Explorers had a time limit between 1-2 hours to complete as many checkpoints and challenges as possible to top the leader board in two categories – Open and Discovery – as individuals or in teams of four. Each category presented Explorers with three types of challenges to be completed, namely the Scan Challenge, Discovery Challenge and Time Trial Challenge.
Ben Pember, Chief Executive Officer of District Technologies said, “District Race was created to inspire everyone to rediscover their city while levelling up their fitness. We want to thank AIA Malaysia for all their support in making District Race KL possible. It was through our partnership with AIA Malaysia that we were able to launch this huge initiative to help people get active in a way that is totally unique to Malaysians – an innovative way to get fit and have fun beyond a typical race. The massive turnout for the very first Malaysian edition of District Race today is hugely encouraging. Hopefully, these explorers have a newfound appreciation for the city that they call home and are motivated to keep on exploring and staying active with the District Race app.”
Heng Zee Wang, Chief Marketing Officer of AIA Malaysia additionally shared, “Since the launch of District Race earlier this year, we have seen tremendous support and enthusiasm from participants all over the country. We at AIA are excited to celebrate the culmination of District Race with this historic event at Dataran Merdeka and are thrilled to see an overwhelming number of participants. We started this journey with District as part of our efforts to encourage Malaysians to get active with their family and friends while experiencing their city in a whole new light – we hope to continue supporting avenues like this as part of our mission of helping Malaysians live Healthier, Longer and Better Lives.”
“Our mission at District is to enable people to get active through exploration. To that end, we introduced the Ultimate Explorer Challenge in the lead up to the race to encourage everyone to explore their city and their limits with the District Race app. Our winner Jimmy has completed over 500 runs with the District Race app since June and he truly embodies the spirit of exploration as our Ultimate Explorer.” said Mr. Pember.
Jimmy Lim, the winner of the District Race Ultimate Explorer Challenge who resides in Kuala Lumpur completed the most runs with the District Race app and won the competition. He was presented with a round-the-world trip to try out District Race grids that are available in over 35 cities globally.
Jimmy attributes his win to his wife, who introduced him to the app. “Personally, I am very excited to have won the Ultimate Explorer Challenge and will continue to explore new and old grids because it makes me feel alive. My wife first introduced me to District Race and we both love running with the app and have continued to explore familiar places like Lake Garden, Bangsar, as well as grids in our home town of Penang Island!
“Having checkpoints and challenges as an additional focus makes it more fun and interesting. The best thing about District race app is that there are always new grids available and my wife and I plan our time to go try them out and the app is a common interest for us, as we encourage one another. I’m looking forward to visiting other beautiful places around the world and trying out District grids there,” he added.
After the race, participants were treated to an array of activities from augmented reality games, live music, great food, and interactive experiences from AIA, eToro and Adidas.
Beyond the race, all Malaysians will still be able to use the District Race app. There are currently over 30 grids in 4 cities across the country, which are completely free to use, with more being added all the time.
For more information on District Race Malaysia, please visit:
Website: www.exploredistrict.com/en/events/kuala-lumpur
Facebook: www.facebook.com/DistrictRaceMY
Instagram: www.instagram/exploredistrictMY
The District Race app is available to download on the Apple Store and Google Play.
#weareallexplorers #districtraceMY #AIAVitalityMY
