‘Masters Games not delayed’

Committee: Email was fake, Penang event to go as planned

GEORGE TOWN:

THE Asia Pacific Masters Games, hosted in Penang, will not be postponed to October as stated in a “fake” email.

In a press release, the APMG committee stated that on Tuesday, the Games’ email was hacked.

“A spam email was sent out to all the participants stating that the Games have been postponed to October because a hurricane was approaching Penang.

“The organisers would like to stress that the APMG 2018 will go on as planned from Friday to Sept 15.

“Measures have been taken to rectify the malicious claim, and a subsequent email blast was sent out to all participants to reiterate that there is no postponement,” said the statement issued yesterday.

APMG 2018 Penang chief executive officer Linda Geh said there was no change to the original schedule.

“There is no need for anyone to worry. Everything is going on smoothly, and we will hold the competitions as planned.”

An officer of the Malaysian Meteorological Department in Kuala Lumpur confirmed there was no immediate threat of a hurricane in Malaysia.

The APMG Penang is the first-ever Masters Games to be held in Asia.

A total of 22 sports are contested. Among these are archery, athletics, badminton, basketball, cycling, football, golf, hockey, lion dance, netball and pencak silat.

The others are shooting, softball, squash, swimming, table tennis, taekwondo, tennis, tenpin bowling, volleyball, weightlifting and wushu.

The competitions will be held over nine days at several venues around Penang, both on the island and mainland.

A total of 5,564 participants from 64 countries around the world will be competing.

The opening ceremony of the APMG 2018 Penang will be held on Saturday at the iconic City Stadium.

Entrance to the opening ceremony and for all the other competitions is free.

For more details, visit www. apmg2018.com