Record breaking PSK this year

Yee Chun Leong
BANDAR SERI BEGAWAN

Friday, June 18, 2010

The Sultanate's premier bi-annual local sport competition just continues to get bigger and better after every edition.

An estimated record number of 3,633 athletes are expected to participate in the upcoming 9th National Sports Festival (PSK) scheduled to be held from June 26 - July 3.

The competition will see the Sultanate's top athletes compete for a total of 2071 medals (654 gold, 654 silver and 763 bronze) from a record number of 28 sporting events to be contested at the eight-day competition.

Previously there were only 23 sports for the 2008 edition.

The new additions are lawn bowls, squash, ten-pin bowling, top-spinning (gasing) and tug-of-war.

In addition to the four districts, teams from Institute of High Education
(UBD, ITB and UNISSA), Sports School Council, Royal Brunei Armed Forces Sports Council, Royal Brunei Police Force Sports Council, Brunei Shell Petroleum, Royal Brunei Airlines and the Brunei Association of Banks will also be competing for top honours.

The organisers have also invited two foreign contingents this year. Labuan will be competing in lawn bowls events and Limbang in the tug-of-war.

The tournament is held with the main objective of discovering new talent in the sports that are being contested, with the long-term goal of moulding the competitors into Brunei representatives for future regional and international competitions.

First organised in 1981, the tournament also hopes to encourage the participants to lead a healthy lifestyle.

A meeting was held between the Department of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Culture, Youth and Sports, and members of the various sports associations yesterday to discuss the tournament at the Multipurpose Hall, Games Village at the Hassanal Bolkiah National Sports Complex in Berakas.

Present to chair the meeting was Panglima Asgar Dato Paduka Hj Abdullah, Director of the Youth and Sports Department.

Though the opening ceremony will only be held next Saturday, the tournament unofficially kicks off today with the basketball competition at the Brunei Basketball Association court in Batu Bersurat at 7pm.

Source: The Brunei Times