By Ahmed Wafi Abdul Rashid
GOMBAK, 19 February 2016: The Sukan Institusi Pendidikan Tinggi (SUKIPT) or the Institutions of Higher Learning Sports held in Skudai recently came to an end with the International Islamic University Malaysia’s (IIUM) contingent finished at eighth position with a total of 24 medals. Of the 24 medals won in the one-week-stay at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia (UTM), five of them were gold.
SUKIPT is a biannual sporting event that is competed by almost every higher educational institute in Malaysia supported by the Ministry of Higher Education with the cooperation of Malaysian Universities Sports Council (MASUM), Community Colleges Sports Council (MSKKM), Private Higher Education Institutions Sports Council (MSIPTS), and Polytechnic Sports Council (MSP).
This year, a total of 101 universities, both private and public competed for the coveted gold medal in 25 different sporting events including netball, volleyball, fencing, handball and athletics.
The IIUM contingent consisted of 128 athletes competing in 12 of the 25 sports at hand. Assistant sports instructor, Sports Development Centre IIUM (SDCIIUM), Shahrul Azni, expressed his delight at the commitment shown by the student athletes and thanked them for their never ending effort that helped the IIUM contingent be where they are today.
“The athletes have been training for SUKIPT since October last year and even trained through the examination period,” Shahrul said with a wide smile.
When asked whether or not he was satisfied with what was achieved he said, “To be honest we’re never actually satisfied because we know that there can always be an improvement made.”
The IIUM Mustangs found glory mainly in karate-do with almost half of the medals won coming from that sport, two of which were gold medals. The other three gold medals won came from tenpin bowling and archery.
Although IIUM came eighth placing in this year’s SUKIPT and showed an improvement in the sporting division, it was no match to Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) which finished the tournament as a landslide winner with a medal haul of 134. 53 of the 134 medals won were gold.***
Feature image courtesy of SDCIIUM