16 MALAYSIAN ATHLETES IN AUSTRALIA'S ARAFURA GAMES

By Zulhilmi Supaat

KUALA LUMPUR, May 4 (Bernama) -- Sixteen Malaysian athletes, including 12
paralympians, will participate in the eight-day Arafura sports festival in
Darwin, Australia, beginning this Saturday.

Malaysian Sports Council (MSN) paralympic branch director Mohd Safrushahar
Yusoff said out of the 12 paralympians, five were table-tennis players and
seven powerlifters.

Apart from the 12, the rest were boxers, he told Bernama here Wednesday.

He said the Malaysian contigent also comprised 11 officials.

The Arafura Sports is a biennial event staged by Darwin city.

Held for the first time in 1991, the festival is getting increasing
participation worldwide and for its 2009 edition, 3,000 athletes from 30
countries took part.

The event involving paralympic athletes started in the 2007 edition.

This year's edition will see a total of 20 games in the competition. They
are athletics, basketball, boxing, cricket, soccer, golf, hockey, lifesaving,
muay thai, sepaktakraw, shooting (clay) and pistol IPSC, pistol ISSF, squash,
swimming, table-tennis, ten-pin bowling, triathlon, volleyball and
weightlifting.

Mohd Safrushahar said overall, the Arafura festival was placed at the bottom
rung of the SEA Games competition.

"As a result, MSN is taking part in only three events," he said.

He said for the paralympic athletes competing in the table-tennis event and
powerlifting, the points obtained were considered for position in the world
ranking as qualification to the Paralympic Sports 2012 in London.