Karim (third right), Snowdan (third left) with (from right) Zul, Ong, Lu and Ting at the press conference.
KUCHING: More than 500 bowlers from 13 countries are expected to compete in the Sarawak International Open Tenpin Bowling Championship at Megalanes Sarawak E-Mart Batu Kawa from Sept 6 to 9.
They include Malaysia, Australia, Japan, South Korea, Hong Kong, India, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait, Philippines, Indonesia, China, Thailand and Singapura.
At least 120 local bowlers are also expected to take part in the championship which was revived after a lapse of 19 years.
“The Sarawak International Open is organised by Amateur Tenpin Bowling Association of Sarawak (Abas) with the support from the Sarawak government through the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports, Sarawak Sports Corporation (SSC) and Sarawak State Sports Council (MSNS),” Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said.
“This is another international sports event that we are organising in Sarawak this year and it will help to promote sports tourism in the state,” he told reporters in a press conference after chairing the coordination meeting with Abas officials and all stakeholders at Stadium Negeri in Petra Jaya yesterday.
Saying that it would take about RM500,000 to organise the event, Karim believes that players in the tourism industry would benefit greatly from the spin-offs.
“The total prize money including others is more than RM100,000 and three professionals Shalin Zulkifli of Malaysia, Kim Seul Ki and Jeong Tae Hwa from South Korea are among those who have confirmed their participation,” he disclosed.
The champions of the Open, Classified and Youth categories will receive RM18,000, RM12,000, RM5,000 and trophies respectively. Abas has also invited the national elite team who are taking part in the SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur this month.
As of yesterday, 167 bowlers have confirmed their participation.
They include teams from Singapore which are Agape Bowling Academy, Strike Academy, Kegelers Bowling Club, Syntech Bowling Club, WynCity of Australia, Korea Pro Bowlers Association, Japan National Youth, Malaysian National Youth, Penang MBI Bowlers and 30 bowlers from the Sarawak Youth Team.
Invited countries/teams have yet to confirm their participation are Malaysian National Team, Singapore National Team, Thailand, Indonesia, Kuwait, India, United Arab Emirates, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Macau, India, Vietnam and Brunei.
Karim also congratulated Abas for doing a good job in organising three international bowling events this year.
“We congratulate Abas and the working committee for doing a good job in convincing our Japanese visitors to come to Sarawak for their training session here.
“Apart from that, Abas will also host the 18th Asian Schools Tenpin Bowling Championsip from Nov 11-17 where 120 players from 13 countries including Australia, Japan, South Korea, Kuwait, Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Philippines, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and Malaysia,” he added.
Also present at the press conference were Assistant Minister of Youth and Sports Snowdan Lawan, SSC CEO Dr Ong Kong Swee, Abas deputy president Robert Lu and committee member Jackie Ting as well as the ministry’s sports unit head Zul Yusup.