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Looking back at year 2008, as we embrace the new
year of 2009 there were many inspiring achievement
gained by the UTM Taekwondo Associations and Sports
team in promoting the sports in UTM as well as
national level. The consistency in our training and
results delivered shows that we are the best sports
team in the university. As a result, the university
has decided to invest RM 30,000 in the sport by
buying not one but three Taekwondo Floor mat for
training purposes. Besides that, we have also run
many activities to improve our skills and techniques
such as exchange program between clubs friendly
match and others management related activities.
The exchange program with the Win Long Taekwondo
club helps to improve our skill and exchange
knowledge with other professional trainers and
players from various background and experience.
Besides, a friendly match with the Johor SUKMA
Taekwondo team and Win Long Taekwondo team is also
arranged at the end of January for assessment. On
the other hand, a booth was also set up in the
library for recruitment of new members.
Then, it is the Danga Bay International Games which
was held on the month of February. This is an
International game that was participated by many
countries and professional state teams and clubs.
Teams such Singapore and Indonesia and so on are
also present to steal the glory of the sports. The
UTM Taekwondo team is the only university team that
brought back a medal in that championship. The
medalist is no other then Mohd Haikal Bin Mustafa
who won a bronze medal in the international arena.
Besides, weekly training should not be taken lightly
as we are targeting for a good result for MASUM
games which was held in the month of May. As a
result, weekly training was intensified. The
training was 4 times a week which include a jogging
class, a basic class, and 2 sparing class. The
weaknesses of each team member were identified and
improvised during the training session. In the month
of April, a grading session was held in Win Long
Club for those who wish to upgrade their belt.
During the month of May, the anticipated MASUM games
have finally arrived. The Taekwondo event of MASUM
2008 was held in Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS).
Yes, as you may ask, what about the air tickets,
accommodation and so on? All expenses were fully
sponsored by the university and all you need to do
is to do your best. But before that, there was a two
weeks of in camp training as a final preparation. As
a result of the tournament, we have won 2 Gold, 1
Silver and 2 bronzes which rank fourth in the
overall ranking among all IPTA. The medalists are
Izwyn, Aiman, Amirul, Ddul and
Siti Nurbaya. Although we do not have any national
player on our side, but through the program arranged
and hard work during training, we can develop the
sport and train our athletes to become a champion. I
would like to again congratulate those who
participated in the game and to those who won as it
is an exciting and knowledgeable experience to be a
part of. I hope that those who participate in MASUM
will share their experience and knowledge with
others and further encourage them to do well. The
knowledge we gain from the game and during in camp
training is priceless, if we do not put it into
practice, it would be a waste don’t you think? After
the MASUM games, it was the long semester break and
the preparation of the KEWAJA 08 Championship was
initiate by
Muhammad Akmal Bakri the director of the
championship.
On July, when the semester break is over, we start
off with our routine training and as usual set up a
booth in the library to do some recruitment and
publicity. In addition, this time we also organize
an exhibition about our achievement in all
tournament participated and activity done. On the
same time, we also need to prepare for a
demonstration for the university convocation fiesta
in August. After the convocation fiesta in August,
we proceed to IIUA invitation championship in Gombak.
This championship was held during the mid semester
break and I manage to organize a one week in camp
training before the competition. The result was 2
silver and 4 bronze. Those who won are:
JAYSUMAN PUSPANATHAN, AMIRUL HAFIZ BIN ABDUL RAZAK,
CHUA POH CHU, MUHAMMAD MUZAKKIR BIN NOORZALLI,
SALMAN BIN HISHAMUDDIN, SITI NURBAYA BT IDRIS
Well, for the silver medalist, I may say that the
luck was just not on our side as it was a close
fight in the final. In September, it was a fasting
month, thus the training time is shorten to one
hour. The training must go on because I need to keep
the athlete in a good form and prepare them for
further championship.
On the other hand, we have successfully organize a
national championship despite the fact that we have
not organize any big scale championship such as the
KEWAJA 08 before. The championship is a success as
it demonstrates the ability of understanding and
tolerant presented by all Taekwondo practitioner
despite of their different background and style. The
venue of this championship is located in Dewan
Sultan Iskandar and has attracted more than 500
participants from various states, local
universities, and schools. Equipment such as
electronic scoring system (ESS) was introduced in
the games to raise the standard and the overall
image of the championship to give the impression of
an international standard tournament. Most of the
tournament held in Malaysia uses manual system to
record the score and seldom use ESS. We have proven
that we have the technical ability to handle the ESS
and run the championship formally and smoothly, and
at the same time we also set a high standard as a
beginner. The championship was a success and again I
would like to congratulate all committee members
that make this event a success. It is amazing to see
how things come together and get organize. In this
tournament, our UTM team also participated and won 2
gold, 2 silver and 6 bronze. It is an achievement
that must be remembered and praised. Those who won
are:
NUR
AZHAN B. AB AZIZ,
TAI
KAH MING,
JAYSUMAN PUSPANATHAN,
IEZZAT EMEER BIN AFFANDI, MOHD HAIKAL B MUSTAFA,
MAJID HAROUNI,
IRWI
BT AZHAR, NURUL SYAZANA BT AZIZ, NURUL FATIHA QALBI
BT KAMARUDIN, NURFADILAH ZAINUDIN.
After the KEWAJA2008 event, we begin to prepare for
the Win Long Charity performance show in Kuo Kwang
School on the 1st of November. We
participated as the committee to assist in the
making the event a success while the performance
were prepared and done by the members of Win Long
Taekwondo Club. The performance was a stage show
that tells a story of how a group of young boys
trained hard to prove themselves to the bullies that
they are not weak. The show was full of laughter and
mix-emotion, with some powerful Taekwondo acrobatic
movement. One of the highlight was the
performer-audient interaction that brings laughter
and resulted in a big round of applause to the
performers. It was an outstanding performance that
attracted a huge crowd of approximately 1000 people
to witness the performance. The performance was
held once in two years and if you missed it, then
you will have to wait till year 2010 to witness the
next performance.
Finally, in the month of December there is another
national tournament in Kuala Terrenganu that we have
decided to participate. As usual, before the
championship there is an in camp training despite
the semester break for one week as the final
preparation. Then, we take a long trip to Terrenganu
by the UTM bus. At Terrenganu, we stayed at the
Universiti Malaysia Terrengganu hostel that is close
to the Pantai Ryu beach. Although we were not
allowed to swim there, so we make it our training
destination and begin to do warming up and jogging
along the beach side. It was a clean, long stretched
beach and the wave is huge due to the monsoon
season. The scenery was beautiful there but we need
to stay focus as we have a mission to complete that
is the tournament. In the tournament, again luck was
not on our side as many reached the sudden death
round and lost in the final. The results of the
tournament are 4 silver, and 1 bronze for the
sparing event and bronze for the poomse event.
As a team manager, I would like express my gratitude
to those who supported me and make all this
fantastic event and activity a reality. In the year
of 2009, I will be passing my post to my successor
Iezzat Emeer Bin Affandi as the new team manager and
I hope that the team will continue to grow, deliver
more result and be respected or recognize by others
as a professional Sports Club. By writing this
article, I also hope that it will inspire others to
do well in all activities they decided to
participate and maintain a good CGPA as a university
student.
By Yap Xen Quan, Taekwondo Team
Manager
(Date of duty: Julai 07 till December 08) |
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The Universiti Teknologi Malaysia
Sports Award Ceremony 2007 was held on the 1st
March 2008 at the Persada Johor International
Convention Center, Johor Bahru. The objective of
this ceremony is to give recognition and to show
appreciation to all athletes of Universiti Teknologi
Malaysia for their achievement and contribution
towards the university in sports.
The ceremony is organized by the Sports Unit of
Universiti Teknologi Malaysia and its committee was
the Team Manager of each sport team governs by the
Sports Unit. The ceremony starts at 8:00pm and ended
at around 10:30pm. After the arrival of the VIP
which are the Senior Officers and the Deputy
Assistant Chancellor (HEP & Alumni), the dinner was
served. In addition, there were also performances
done by our local artist as we enjoy the food. This
is the night where the athletes enjoy the most after
the yearlong of trainings and competitions. The
foods are delicious and not to mention the dessert,
it was well decorated and believe it or not we all
take a picture of it before we began serving it. You
really need to come and feel the environment and the
food to believe it!As for our Taekwondo team, there
were many nominations and award won by our athletes.
We have been nominated for the:
Best Team Manager (Yap Xen Quan) and
Olahragawati (Izwyn Zulkapri). Besides, Izwyn
Zulkapri and Eric Siau Jun Xiong also won two “MASUM
Champion Award” respectively. On the other hand,
Izwyn Zulkapri also received the Full Color
Recognition Award. This award is only awarded to the
final year athletes that represented the country to
international arena for competition.Other awards and
recognition receive by Taekwondo UTM team are:
1.
Recognition for Coaches.
Master Mdm Lau Choon Boon
&
Jaysuman a/l Pusppanathan
2.
Recognition for Team manager:
Muhammad Akmal Bakri Abu Bakar, Izwyn
Zulkapri,
Marwan Zakaria.
The ceremony ended with a lucky draw
event that added a smile to the face of all
athletes. There were so many lucky draw hampers to
give away and almost every team gets two. After the
ceremony, we went back to UTM campus by bus prepared
by the organizer. On the way back to campus, I can
see that all athletes were well motivated with the
will to train harder and to produce a better result
in their future competition. I hope that for the
coming year, the Sports Unit can maintain the
standard of the ceremony as it will definitely
benefit both side. Besides, I also hope to see more
awards won by our Taekwondo team in the next Sports
Award Ceremony.
Prepared by: Yap Xen Quan
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