Karim (centre) poses with the guests, referees, officials and participants. – Photos by Muhd Rais Sanusi
KUCHING: The Persatuan Judo Sarawak (PJS) and other sports bodies have been encouraged to organise international competitions in the state.
Assuring PJS of support from the State government, Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said he is looking forward to seeing more international sports events in the state next year.
“The State government through my ministry has always encouraged the organising of international sporting events because it will promote the development of sports in Sarawak.
“Therefore, we support this event because it is a big step forward for the development of judo locally and it will help to give good exposure to local judokas in higher level tournaments,” he said at the opening of the Sarawak Invitational Judo Championship and Judo Seminar at Aeroville Mall in Stutong yesterday.
Karim (second right) welcomes Hiroshi Kawamoto (third right) while (from right) Tan, Chan, Hiraoka and Masanori Takahashi look on.
“The State government will always be supportive of any tournament you want to organise. You just need to come over to the ministry or SSC and come up with your project paper.”
“We have many, many millions of ringgit at our disposal to organise international events and it is up to the sports associations to organise the events,” added Karim.
He said the event also served to introduce Sarawak to judokas from other states in Malaysia as well as from Kalimantan, Indonesia, Brunei and can promote cordial relations and good rapport among the participants.
“Any kind of martial sports be it judo, karate, taekwondo or silat is always good because it will also instill a good sense of discipline in the exponents.
“It is good for you to learn self-defence because sometimes you might be facing trouble – there might be robbers and people wanting to create trouble — and at least you know how to defend yourself,” said Karim.
He congratulated the association for organising the competition.
“It is an honour for us to have London Olympics men’s 60kg silver medallist Sensei Hiraoka Hiroaki to conduct a seminar here and I am sure all the participants will learn a lot from him based on the vast experience he has as a world judo exponent,” he added.
Also present were PJS president Francis Chan, Aeroville Mall Sdn Bhd director Tan Kun Gee and Hiraoka.