Coming Events of Olympic Council of Malaysia

• 110th Malaysian Amateur Open 2012 – 24th to 27th May 2012 at Glenmarie Golf Country Club.

• 11th Joint International Session for Presidents or Directors of National Olympic Academies and officials of National Olympic Committees – 24th to 31st May 2012 at Olympia, Greece.

• 2012 Malaysian Nationals (Waterski & Wakeboard) – 25th to 27th May 2012 at Putrajaya.

• 2012 Malaysia National Woodball Championship – 27th May 2012, at Taman Metropolitan Batu, Off Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur

• 32nd MILO Malaysia Youth Table Tennis Championships – 27th to 30th May 2012 at the OCM Indoor Sports Arena, Level 3, Wisma OCM, Phase II, Kuala Lumpur.

• OCM Selection Committee Meeting – 28th May 2012 at 4.30 p.m. at OCM Boardroom, Wisma OCM, Kuala Lumpur.

• 29th Malaysian Ladies Amateur Open 2012 – 29th to 31st May 2012 at Kuala Lumpur Golf & Country Club.

• Malaysian Malays National Cricket Elite Under-12 tournament for Tun Ahmad Sarji Shield – 29th May to 2nd June 2012 at the Bayuemas Oval, Klang and UKM Oval, Bangi.

• HSBC Asian Five Nations 2012 Championships – 30th May to 2nd June 2012 at Kelana Jaya Stadium, Petaling Jaya. For details of schedule, please log in to www.mru.org.my.

• 18th South East Asian Junior Table Tennis Championships – 1st to 5th June 2012 at Yoguakarta, Indonesia.

• 36th South East Asia Shooting Championships 2012 – 1st to 10th June 2012 at National Shooting Range Subang.

• 1st Malaysian Junior Close 2012 – 4th to 7th June 2012, at Kelab Golf Perkhidmatan Awam, Bukit Kiara.

• 11th OCM Executive Board Meeting 2012 – 5th June 2012 at 4.30 p.m. at OCM Boardroom, 1st Floor, Wisma OCM, Kuala Lumpur.

• 52nd International Session for Young Participants – 16th to 30th June 2012, Olympia, Greece.

• 31st OCM Annual General Assembly – Saturday, 30th June 2012, Wisma OCM, Kuala Lumpur.

• 2012 Olympic Day Run – Sunday, 8th July 2012 from 6.30 a.m. at Dataran Merdeka Kuala Lumpur.

MAJOR SPORTS EVENTS 2011/2012

• 2012 SEA Games Federation Meetings – 6th to 10th June 2012 at Nay Pyi Taw, Myanmar.
• 3rd OCA Asian Beach Games, Haiyang, China – 16th to 22nd June 2012.
• Games of the XXX Olympiad – 27th July to 12th August 2012, London.
• CGF General Assembly 2012 – 28th September 2012, Kampala, Uganda
• 30th OCA General Assembly 2012 – October, Macau, China.

News Items

2012 Malaysia National Woodball Championship

2012 Malaysia National Woodball Championship covering Open and Youth Events to be held at Taman Metropolitan Batu, Off Jalan Ipoh, Kuala Lumpur. organized by Malaysia Woodball Association on 27th May 2012. Participating states are Pahang, Perlis, Terengganu, Pulau Pinang dan Wilayah Persekutuan Kuala Lumpur.

Meeting with the Sports Commissioner

OCM held a very useful and cordial meeting with the Sports Commissioner and his officers on 17th May 2012. OCM was represented by its President, YAM Tunku Tan Sri Imran ibni Almarhum Tuanku Ja’afar, Vice President, Y.Bhg. Dato’ Roy Rajasingham and members of the Working Group, Encik Bryan Perera, Encik T. Kumar and Dato’ Sieh Kok Chi. OCM sought clarifications on the following items:

• Does the Sports Developing Act 1997 requires all sports bodies and sports organisations to be registered under the Act?

• Is it correct that “Sports body” as defined in the Act “means an association, club, society or company which acts as the governing or representative body of a sport in Malaysia whether at district, State or national level, whether or not such association, club, society or company is only an affiliate of another association, club, society or company”, refers to only governing bodies of a sport?

• Is it mandatory for any sports organization which does not “acts as the governing or representative body of a sport in Malaysia whether at district, State or national level,….” is therefore not a “Sports body”, to be registered under the Sports Development Act 1997?

• Does the Act provided the Sports Commissioner the power to amend the existing provisions of constitutions of sports organizations, once the sports organizations are registered under the Act?

In the discussion OCM expressed the view that it is not against the registration of all sports organisation under the Act as registration under the Act, gives them legal status to start a bank account, collect funds, etc. However, the enforcement of the Act should be strictly in accordance to the provisions in the Act, nothing more and nothing less. Unfortunately in the past, there have been a few bad experiences of the Sports Commissioner’s office over-stepping their powers, leading to misunderstandings and some appeals for judicial review of the decisions of the Sports Commissioner’s Office.

P&G Launch of “Proud Sponsor of Moms” global campaign in Malaysia

Procter & Gamble (Malaysia) Sdn Bhd (P&G), on 18th May 2012, launched its “Proud Sponsor of Moms” global campaign to celebrate, recognise and reward the contributions of mothers in nurturing and developing champion athletes. National Olympic diver, Pandelela Rinong and her mother, Puan Hartini binti Lamin were present at the launch to share their experience and sucess stories in their journey from a young diver to an Olympian. The event was hosted by Ms. Ellie Xie, Country CEO of P&G Malaysia and Singapore.

Pandelela, won a silver medal in the 10m Platform Diving event at the 1st Youth Olympic Games 2010, held in Singapore. She is a medal hope in Diving, at the London 2012 Olympic Games. Photograph shows Pandelela Rinong and her mother Puan Hartini binti Lamin in a happy mood.

5th Malaysia Ultimate Frisbee Open 2012

The 5th Malaysia Ultimate Frisbee Open was held at the Alice Smith International School, Equine Park, on 19th and 20th May 2012. The Open Championship attracted 20 teams, 12 of which were from overseas competing against 8 Malaysian teams, with over 400 athletes. The sport of Ultimate Frisbee is relatively new in Malaysia and is mainly played at universities, schools and companies level. The sport is a mixture of the following sports:

• Netball – no body contact and no movement once a player has caught the Frisbee and player must pass the Frisbee to his/her team mates within 10 seconds

• American Football – the player scores a point by catching the Frisbee in the touch-down area of its opponent and the Frisbee could be thrown forward and in any directions.

• Korfball – the game is played by two mixed team, 4 men and 3 women in each team. The men mark the men and the women mark the women.

Like some sports, there is no referee. The players decide between themselves whether there is a foul or not. Each team has 20 over players, but only 7 can play at one time. A game is played over 60 minutes, with two halves of 30 minutes and a rest period of 2 periods. However, after every score there is a change of side. Thus the game is fast and the players must be extremely fit.

What impressed me most is the “Spirit of the Game”, which encompasses the 5 Olympic Values, as expressed as follows: “Ultimate Frisbee stresses sportsmanship and fair play. Competitive play is encouraged, but never at the expense of respect between players, adherence to the rules and the basic joy of play”.

Thus the Spirit of the Games has fair play (stresses sportsmanship and fair play), strive for excellence (competitive play is encouraged), Respect for Others (never at the expense of respect between players), Joy of Effort (the basic joy of play) and Balance of Body, Mind and Spirit (adherence to the rules and sportsmanship).