Welcoming revival of Borneo Games after a 12 year hiatus

The revival of the Borneo Games after a 12 years hiatus is much welcomed by all parties taking part in the event scheduled to be held in Kuching City on 24 to 28 September this year. We view the revival of the regional sporting event as crucial because it was first introduced in 1955 and last held in 2013. The revival of the games this year requires the organising committee to treat it as a fresh launch, prioritising quality over quantity due to the long hiatus.

For the forthcoming games to be very well organised, it should suffice for it to have just five sports for now. But we did open it up to others, and if there’s any interest or agreement from the main committee, we could include more sporting events. This time round, the traditional sports such as tug-of-war and blowpipe would also be featured in the Borneo Games 2025, alongside an invitational golf event to add cultural and recreational flavour to the event.

As I have mentioned to our media friends earlier, the other three events to be featured in Borneo Games 2025 would be athletics, archery and lawn ball. During the first meeting with the relevant participating contingents, we had discussions and there was a general consensus for the games to restart on a modest scale, and to expand in future editions, depending on facilities and readiness of everyone concerned.

We have to take into consideration factors such as some provinces not having the relevant sports infrastructure, or enough athletes. For example, the Brunei side had stated that they would love to host the games, but they told us about them not having the facilities. Their population is around 400,000 and it is smaller when compared to Kuching alone when the number of our people is double that.

Nonetheless, the long-term goal of having Borneo Games is that the hosting venue and duties will be rotated among Brunei, Sabah, Sarawak and the Bornean provinces of Indonesia. We are hopeful for the games to continue grow stronger from here especially with everyone’s support and cooperation.