Zamburi Baijuri
SAMARAHAN: University Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) is right on the track to becoming a bowling powerhouse in the country.
Since it was made a bowling centre for university students by the Education Ministry three years ago, Unimas has produced some encouraging results especially in the Malaysian University Sports Council (Masum) it hosted here in April.
In the bowling event, Unimas bowlers captured one gold and one silver medals to finish second overall behind UiTm.
The gold medal was won by the pair of Mohammad Shahir and Nazriman Wagiman in the men’s doubles and the silver came from Nazriman in the men’s all events.
“We presently have a few state bowlers like Syazwani Isa from Sarawak who is a UPSTN trainee and Sukma bowler Shahir from Negeri Sembilan. We have also offered a bowler from the national youth squad to pursue her studies here,” said Unimas Sports Unit head Zambari Baijuri.
Zambari said Unimas was chosen to be the national bowling centre because it was the only university in Malaysia that has a bowling alley.
“We are hoping that we can get some potential bowlers in our September students intake and groom them into calibre bowlers.
In the next two or three years, we hope to see them representing the country in the Asean University Games,” he added.
Zambari said Unimas was one of the universities that had excellent sports facilities for its students and staff and apart from having a bowling centre, Unimas is also the only university that has a futsal centre with three courts.
With the completion of a sports complex that comprised a badminton hall with six courts, futsal centre, swimming pool, tennis, squash, basketball, volleyball, lawn bowls courts and three football fields, Zambari said Unimas is slowly becoming a popular venue for staging sports events.
“We are now hosting the inter-prisons football tournament vying for the Tan Sri Murad Ahmad Cup and we have been chosen as the venue for the Sarawak Sukma XV contingent camp as well as playing host to the national Inter-Bomba Games next week,” he said.
He also welcomed both the public and private sectors to organise their sports activities in Unimas.
They can either contact him at 013-8108028 or his office at 082-581696/082-581000.
“We planned the sports facilities mainly for the students and staff to spend their free time as well as encouraging them to be active in sports and not so much for commercial purposes,” he explained.