By: Muhammad Al-Amin Mustafha
SERDANG, July 11 – Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) has organised the Majlis Ramah Mesra with UPM Olympic athletes via the online platform to lift the spirits of UPM student-athletes who will be representing the country at the Tokyo Olympic Games which will take place from July 23 to August 8, 2021.
Among the UPM athletes who have qualified for the world's biggest sporting event is the national elite diver, Leong Mun Yee. This will be her fifth participation in the Olympics.
She represented the country at the Sydney (2000), Athens (2004), Beijing (2008) and London (2012) Olympics.
She said the Tokyo 2020 Olympics would be the last Olympic arena for her, and she would do her best in helping the national contingent to win a medal.
Apart from Mun Yee, two other UPM student-athletes representing the country at the Games are Azreen Nabila Alias ?�??�?in athletics and Shaqiera Mashayikh (archery).
The two young athletes recorded outstanding achievements at the 2020 world championships, which qualified them to be selected by the Olympic Council of Malaysia to represent the country.
The incentive giving ceremony for UPM Olympic athletes was attended by the UPM Vice-Chancellor, Prof. Dr. Mohd Roslan Sulaiman, together with the university management and 75 national athletes who are currently furthering their studies at UPM.
Prof. Dr. Mohd Roslan presented a cash incentive of RM1,000 each at the ceremony. The athletes also received a grant worth RM2,000 for the student mobility programme and tuition fee exemption for two semesters.
Head of UPM Sports Centre, Dr. Hanafiah Ayub, said UPM always provides full support to athletes who are competing to ensure all their needs and welfare are taken care of.
The involvement of Institutions of Higher Learning (IPT) athletes in the games showed that the sports development programme provided by the Ministry of Higher Education and the IPT Sports Centre are on the right track in producing world-class athletes. - UPM
