Professional Documents
Culture Documents
sporting lifestyle
Progress
in motion
2 Sporting Lifestyle
Fight or flight
Sporting it right
www.potosancorner.com.my or the
Potosan Corner Pro Shop Facebook page.
l Head
l Shoulders
l Knees
n For more
information,
call 012-699
6922.
l Back
Handle
sports injuries
with care
to prevent
long-term
damage on
the body.
Upcoming competitions
No retreat, no surrender
Built to physically challenge
participants and bring them out
of their comfort zones, Reeboks
Spartan Race is an annual series
of races that times participants on
their speed when completing an
obstacle course that is complete
with mud, fire, walls and barbed
wire.
There are three types of races
that are labelled Sprint, Super and
Beast. Participants who complete
all three races in a calendar year
will be accepted as a Spartan
TRIFECTA Tribe member.
With the Spartan Sprint course
being the shortest and Spartan
Beast the longest, the distances of
these races range from more than
5km to 20km. The number of
obstacles range from 20 to 30.
Junior races that are offered to
children under the age of 14 are
1.5km in distance. Next years
Spartan Sprint event will be
happening on March 12 with
prices starting from RM129,
whereas junior races start from
RM78. The venue of the race is yet
to be confirmed.
For more information, visit
www.spartanrace.my.
Battle cry
The Warriors Challenge will be
held on Dec 10 in Kuala Lumpur.
The event will consist of five
courses the Obstacle Race, Hike
To The Peak, Rock Climbing At
The Top, Cross Country 2.4KM
Cycle through
The annual SP Mountain Bike
Jamboree will be held on Dec 11
at Sungai Petani, Kedah.
The registration date for this
mountain bike rally closes on
Dec 4. On the day of the jamboree,
cyclists will have to be at Taipan
Bazaar, Bandar Puteri Jaya,
Smashing
The University of Nottingham
Malaysia Campus will be hosting
this years PROTECH-Nottingham
Badminton Open on Dec 3 and 4.
The tournament will be applying
the knockout system with a
minimum of 16 entries.
The organisers encourage
students from other colleges and
badminton academies to
participate in the tournament
with the aim of providing a
friendly arena for badminton
players of different standards and
backgrounds to interact with one
another.
Registration fees for the singles
competitions for men and women
start at RM35, whereas mens and
mixed doubles start at RM65.
Champions, first runner-ups and
second runner-ups stand a chance
to win prize money and medals.
For more information, visit
www.mbt.my/badmintontournaments/protech-badmintonopen-2016.
4 Sporting Lifestyle
SportsDirect.com's managing director Paul Gibbons (front, third from left) with the staff of the Subang Jaya
flagship outlet.
6 Sporting Lifestyle
A mountain to climb
By IAN JEROME LEONG
BE it during the Olympics, Commonwealth
Games or Southeast Asian Games,
Malaysian newspapers have always
dedicated numerous pages to cover the
various events and disciplines.
In the days preceding the World Cup or
UEFA Euro finals, souvenir magazines,
event memorabilia and team jerseys fly off
the shelves and, more often than not, are
sold out before the kick-off.
These examples plus the outpouring of
support for our jaguh sukan negara during
the recent Olympics are testaments to
Malaysias love affair with sports.
Unfortunately, if we were to step back
and analyse the countrys sporting scene as
a whole, it would seem that Malaysians are
only at the top of their game when it comes
A contentious goal
Among the biggest factors that impede a
more active lifestyle here is the degree of
importance corporations, schools and
parents put on sports.
This problem is likely due to the business
Making a splash
Though operating on a smaller budget
compared to other ministries, the Youth
and Sports Ministry is doing what it can to
Sporting Lifestyle 7
Andrew
Kasimir
sporting long
hair (second
row, second
from left) with
the Damansara
Dementors.
Gathering pace
> FROM PREVIOUS PAGE
In addition to sports such as badminton,
football, basketball, table tennis, swimming
as well as track and field that remain as
favourites among Malaysians, young adults
are embracing new fitness trends that
have arrived on our shores in the
past decade.
Obstacle races such as Spartan and Viper
Challenge are popular among many fitness
buffs and participant numbers have been
gradually rising every year.
The introduction of new challenges in
each edition is able to sustain the interest of
endurance runners, leaving them hungry for
upcoming competitions.
Besides general fitness classes such as
yoga, aerobics, boot camp and TRX training,
gyms are also starting to introduce niche
programmes such as powerlifting and
mixed-martial arts as there is currently a
growing following for these sports in
Malaysia.
Many people do not realise that there is
also a healthy number of alternative sports
that are quietly growing in Malaysia.
Furthermore, some of these teams are
performing well at the international level
such as the Malaysian team that secured
the runner-up position in this years
Dodgeball World Cup, beating the likes of
the United States, Scotland, Northern Ireland,
Egypt and Wales.
Some of the other alternative sports that
are quickly catching on are lacrosse, touch
rugby, flag football, ultimate Frisbee, muggle
quidditch and floorball.
James Veerapen.
8 Sporting Lifestyle
CELINE Ooi Chiew Wei has known
swimming almost all her life.
I learnt to swim at the age
of five and when I was around
seven years old, one of the coaches
approached my mother and asked
if I would like to enter competitive
swimming. I started training then,
which was how my journey in
professional swimming began,
says the 31-year-old full-time
swimming coach.
Ooi began taking part in
national interclub swimming
competitions at 11 years old
and achieved podium finish at
the same age.
She competed in her first
international meet at the 1998
Southeast Asian (SEA) Age Group
Swimming Championships in the
Philippines when she was
13 years old.
She later took part in the 1998
Asia Pacific Age Group Swimming
Championship, Asian School
Swimming Championship in 2001
and Asean School Swimming
Championship 2003.
The peak of her career was
when she broke the 50m
backstroke national record at
the 2003 Malaysian Open in Sabah
when she was just 18 years old.
Although Ooi missed the
qualifying round of the 2001 SEA
Games in Kuala Lumpur, she
continued to pursue swimming
while studying in university and
competed in the Asean University
Games in Hanoi in 2006 and Kuala
Lumpur in 2008.
She also competed in five Sukan
Malaysia events between 1998 and
2006 and won three bronze
medals in total.
It was after that when Ooi
decided to make a shift in her
swimming career and became a
triathlete.
Ooi attributes her interest in
cycling as one of her reasons for
dabbling in triathlons, especially
after she accompanied her
coach to officiate the swimming
discipline of the Ironman triathlon
in Langkawi prior to becoming a
triathlete. The opportunity for
involvement came not long after.
I got into triathlons when
someone approached my
national swim team looking for
swimmers to form a relay team
for the swimming discipline. My
coach slowly prepared me for the
individual event, says Ooi.
Juggling academics and triathlon
training can be a challenge.
According to Ooi, in addition to
ensuring that she maintained her
results in university, she had to
Celine Ooi Chiew Wei is passionate about swimming and wants to impart her skills and knowledge to others.
undergo training for three
disciplines that make up a
triathlon swimming, cycling
and running.
Ooi was able to practise
swimming on her own but needed
coaching for the cycling and
running disciplines with her then
coach, Peter Lau.
I would go to his place at
around 8pm almost every night to
train on my cycling. During the
weekends, I would have long
training sessions in Putrajaya that
involved cycling and running.
She managed to qualify for the
SEA Games in Pattaya for the
triathlon and a few other
competitions as well.
She is now a retired triathlete
and works as a swimming coach
for various groups of people.
It is in the water
As a coach, Ooi advocates the
benefits of swimming to the
masses. She believes it is
important for people of any age to
pick up swimming as it is not only
a safe and effective form of
exercise but is also a useful skill to
have.
Ooi says that all parents should
encourage their children to take
up swimming as it may come in
handy as a life-saving skill.
In addition to building a
stronger body and cardiovascular
system, swimming helps children
Gear up
Many think that swimming,
training and hydrotherapy only
involve getting into the water and
performing a few movements.
However, to further train muscles
and technique, a wide variety of
gear and equipment are used.