Sarawak To Send 40 Athletes To 9th BIMP-EAGA Friendship Games

KUCHING (Sarawak, Malaysia) Dec 1 (Bernama) -- Sarawak will send 40 athletes, seven coaches and five officials to the 9th BIMP-EAGA Friendship Games to be held in Samarinda, East Kalimantan, in Indonesia from Dec 6 to 12. The Sarawak contingent will be led by Kameri Affandi, permanent secretary to the State Ministry of Youth, Sports and Solidarity. Sarawak is one of the three teams from Malaysia participating in the competition. The two others are Sabah and the Federal Territory of Labuan. Indonesia is sending 15 teams, the Philippines, two and Australia and Brunei Darussalam, one each. Sarawak Minister for Youth, Sports and Solidarity Datuk Seri Michael Manyin Jawong said 12 events would be competed at the games, namely futsal, sepak takraw, archery, pencak silat, badminton, basketball, athletics, beach volleyball, ping pong, tennis, karate and golf. These games were last organised in the Federal Territory of Labuan in 2014 where Sarawak collected 16 gold medals. The BIMP-EAGA Friendship Games were first held in the Philippines in 1996 and then in Brunei in 1997. The games were discontinued until 2003 when the Philippines played host again followed by Malaysia (Sabah) in 2004, Indonesia in 2006, Brunei in 2008 and the Philippines again in 2012. -- BERNAMA