by Syarifah Norrasyidah Syed Mohri
Universiti Tun Hussein Onn Malaysia’s (UTHM) Pagoh campus has been named as the development hub for Malaysia’s canoe polo in the southern region, a move aimed to make the sport popular among students.
UTHM’s watersport coordinator Shaid Jaafar said the decision also aims to produce athletes among university students who will represent the state and the country in international competitions.
“Canoe polo is still relatively unknown and lack popularity in Malaysia, but the Malaysian team has won a medal during the last Asian Canoe Polo Championships 2017,” he told HE Today when contacted.
The move, which has been made possible by Johor State Canoe Association (PEKEJ) under the Malaysian Canoe Polo Committee, also involves secondary school students from SMK Tengku Mahmud Iskandar in Muar, Johor.
He said this will open up opportunities for the students to train within the university’s grounds while being exposed to the university programmes and competitions.
“We want to expose the students to the university environment and hopefully in the future, enroll them into our university as a student and an athlete,” he said, adding that they were looking at producing students who excel not only in academics, but also sports.
“These students will be given an opportunity to pursue their studies either in UTHM or Polytechnics once they have graduated from schools. This agreement between UTHM and PEKEJ will help ensure that students who are actively involved in sports are also academically excellent,” he added.
