That would be sweet, but could this be more rumour than fact? I lived on Penang Island for several years and love the area but the numbers don't make sense. You have the gruelling conditions, VERY hot and humid equatorial weather combined with a rather small local base of potential thletes (Singapore, KL, Penang, Southern Thailand) - maybe 100 or 200 of these 'locals' would show up for a full iron-distance race. From what I recall of the old IM Malaysia, about half of the competitors travelled in from quite far (Oz, Euro, Jap, HK/CHN). I can't see a branded IM race pulling in more than 300 paying competitors. A non brand Iron distance maybe 150.