Borneo kite festival brings windfall, flying colours

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BINTULU: The five-day 10th Borneo International Kite Festival 2014 has ended with a thundering success for the organisers, and local traders, said Bintulu Resident Muhamad Yakup Kari.

Local kite flyers from Bintulu are among those presented with medals of recognition for their soaring feats by Bintulu Resident Yakup (second right) and BDA secretary Aishah (right).

“I think we are getting back the returns from this festival in terms of vibrant business activities for the past five days,” he said during the appreciation dinner for kite flyers at Kemena Plaza Hotel on Sunday night.

He said it was a noteworthy windfall for all coffee shops and restaurants here, which should have generated lucrative income during the five-day extravaganza.

Yakup, who is the co-chairman for the festival, pointed out that the most important and meaningful thing was to see the smiling faces of all participants, foreigners included.

“Please do come back next year and the organiser will assist you in order to ensure you will stay longer here,” he said.

He also hoped all participants will give their feedback on the festival, to ensure smooth sailing with improvements made to the next edition of the kite festival.

Meanwhile, a kite flyers representative Ron Des Pojado of USA said it was a “wonderful five days experience” participating in the festival.

“We all fly with heart and the passion that we all shared in this kite flying event, besides making new friends and strengthening friendship among kite flyers,” he said.

Also present was Bintulu Development Authority secretary Siti Aishah Othman.

Eleven awards were also presented to flyers during the dinner: Eolo Gubbio from Italy (Most Colourful Kite); Yap Kuet Fui from Kuching (Longest Kite); Abd Halim Abu Samad from Terengganu (Rokkaku Challenge); Andrea Baffoni from Italy (Last Man Standing – Gudi); Naoki Tamura and Rie Tamura of Japan (Most Sporting Kite Couple).

The Largest Kite award went to Wind Hunter from Singapore, Shan Hua of China (Female sporting flyer); March Andre Van Denbroeck of Belgium (Male sporting flyer); Ron Des Pojado of USA (Best individual performance); I Team of Indonesia (Best duo performance); and Airrex of Japan (Best team performance).

On Sunday, the ‘Longest arch kite’ tunnel of 500 metres formed by 2,500 diamond kites made it to the Malaysia Book of Records (MBR) along the old airport site. The 2nd Asia Pacific Sport Kite title went to SSKC Delta Force team from Japan.