Sports/Leisure

Some 200 disabled participants spent almost the entire day yesterday having fun at the National Paintball Competition, which is part of Jelajah OKU Sentral at Regency Tanjung Tuan Beach Resort in Port Dickson.

Participants of “Kayuhan Basikal Jelajah Malaysia”, a cycling tour by the disabled, are set to make it into the Malaysia Book of Records (MBR) by finishing a 1,505-kilometre tandem bicycle ride which is the farthest distance for special needs cyclists.

An explosion tore through Nilofar Bayat’s leg when she was just two years old, but as she spins her wheelchair across a basketball court in Bangkok, the Afghan athlete is determined to turn her story from tragedy to trium­ph.

Two visually-impaired men proved that being disabled should not hinder a person from achieving their goals. Wong Hung Fai and Faiq Adnan, who became professional swimmers despite suffering from visual impairment, shared their experiences and struggles with participants during a drowning prevention campaign organised by the Malaysian Crime Prevention Foundation (MCPF) at Taman Tasik Ayer Keroh.

The Malaysian Cricket Association will put a number of national cricket players on a special task to train 30 intellectually disabled students from SMK Batu Muda as they aim to qualify for a slot to compete at the 2019 Special Olympics World Summer Games in Abu Dhabi.

The inaugural East Malaysia Lions International English Chess Championship for the Disabled will take place at Vivacity Megamall here on March 4. Thirty-two contestants from Sarawak and Sabah are vying for the top 10 positions to book their spots in the Grand Final of the Malaysia Lions International English Chess Championship in Kuala Lumpur on March 18.

Known as FunBowl, this initiative is part of the Singapore edition of the three-leg tour series from Feb 25 to March 2. Hong Kong (March 27-31) and Kuching, Malaysia (July 31-Aug 5) will host the other legs.

In 2016, Malaysian Paralympians won the first golds for our country at the 2016 Summer Paralympics held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. That year marked a proud moment as they returned home bearing 3 gold and 1 bronze from the international sporting event.

Gen-Y Penampang and JCI Penampang have again joined force to organise the Wheelchair Charity Run 2018 to raise awareness about people with all kinds of disability and the challenges they face on a daily basis. The groups will be organising the event on May 1 after having successfully done it last year where they attracted 567 participants, including 150 individuals with disabilities.