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| Karim, Snowdan (11th right), PAL president Igor Mazurenko (fifth right, squatting) and other guests pose with the Vendetta Top 8 pullers, referees and officials. |
KUCHING: The Sarawak Government has taken a bold move in supporting this year’s Vendetta Top 8 Armwrestling Championship because it wants to further enhance Sarawak’s sports tourism potential and to project Sarawak as a major destination for hosting world class armwrestling events.
Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said this is because Sarawak recognises the importance of sports tourism which include armwrestling and other endurance sports events which have a large number of followers all over the world.
“We are also hoping that, through this event, we are can promote our “Visit Sarawak Campaign” to a larger audience and to promote our traditional multi-cultural heritage as well as other tourism products.
“This is one of the reasons why my Ministry has strongly supported the organising of armwrestling events by Premier 101 and Professional Armswrestling League so that all the international participants can come back to Sarawak and spend a longer time to explore our wide range of tourist attractions,” he said at the opening of the Vendetta Top 8 Championship at Hotel Pullman Kuching on Friday night.
He said it was an honour for Sarawak to host this exciting event and Sarawak is very happy to have all the participants, fans and supporters here because of the Visit Sarawak Campaign.
“I am also very happy to note that this event will make Sarawak famous because it is being promoted and streamed live over the Internet. As such, millions of people all over the world are going to see this event ‘live’ over their smartphones and other mobile devices. With that, we would like to thank the organisers for giving us the opportunity to become host and at the same time this will help to promote Sarawak on a global scale,” said Karim.
The Asajaya assemblyman added that Sarawak is no stranger in hosting international sporting events because the government has invested quite substantially in building and developing high quality sports facilities.
Among the major sports events that Sarawak will also be hosting this year will be the 20th Asian Youth Tenpin Bowling Championship at Megalanes Sarawak from April 17 to 25, the 117th Malaysian Amateur Open Golf Championship at Sarawak Golf Club from June 19 to 23 and the Borneo International Sailing Challenge at Marina Bay in Miri from July 26 to 28.
Also present were Assistant Minister of Youth and Sports Datuk Snowdan Lawan, Sarawak Sports Corporation CEO Dr Ong Kong Swee, Malaysia Armwrestling Federation president Mohd Zil Fadli, Premier 101 Armwrestling Club president Dato Sri Teng Chi Lik, deputy president Stephen Kee who is also the organising chairman for Vendetta Top 8 and the 4th Premier 101 International Charity Armwrestling Competition. -TheBorneoPost
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