SMK Pulau Gaya first Sabah school to introduce muaythai
KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah Muay Thai Association (PMNS) opens its year by bringing the excitement of the sport as a cocurricular activity at SMK Pulau Gaya.
Its president Nazri Abd Razak said SMK Pulau Gaya was the first school in the state to receive muaythai sport as one of the cocurricular activities.
According to Nazri, the sport was introduced to the school last year by Sabah Muaythai coach, Cyrille Dhilon Tahing, who proposed it as a co-curricular activity.
“The proposal was received well by the school thanks to the school principal, A’zah Ismail, co-curricular senior assistant, Hakmat Abdullah and muaythai club advisor, Harry Gunik.
“SMK Pulau Gaya is the first school in Sabah to make muaythai one of the co-curricular activities with the participation of 60 students,” Nazri said in a statement yesterday.
According to him, it is one of the grassroots development efforts by the association in which the program will be run by a certified trainer with a teaching licence, one of which is to allow it to be carried out at schools.
Nazri said efforts would be made to further introduce the sport to other schools in the state where it is one of the long-term grassroots development agenda of the association for 2015-2020.
In this regard, he hoped that more muaythai coaches would take coaching courses to obtain licences to accommodate the needs of PMNS’s efforts.
He said PMNS’s efforts were on the right track where some of the state’s athletes had represented the country at international championships in Bangkok and South Korea last year.
Malaysia was represented by 10 athletes of which six were Sabahans, in tournaments in Bangkok.
Sabah athletes also created waves when they won the gold medal through Daniel Fiedieans Maideh in the men’s 12-13 category.
Two other Sabah athletes namely Riedzwan Norsyarmie Daud (men’s 48kg 16-17 category) and Kallens Barthez Jafili (men’s 57kg 14-15 years old) bagged bronze medals.
Other Sabah athletes who participated in the tournament were Areen Khan Shahzam (45kg 16-17), Mohd Shazmiel Shahzam (57kg 16-17) and Kenny Jafili (71kg 16-17).