Water Sports Festival between Inter-College Hostels & IPT Borneo Regatta 2015

Friday, 16th October 2015, at UNIMAS Lake, a Water Sports Festival (Festival Sukan Air) was conducted. The day’s condition was slightly windy and cool. The first day consists of qualifying rounds of the kayak sports in several categories: men single, women single, men doubles, women doubles and mixed doubles. The event started at 3.15pm and ended around 5pm. The results of the qualifying rounds was released around 5.30pm.

Women doubles team consisting of Lee Li Yen and Tim Hui Shen, Ivan Isaac Thomas and Agie Alfie Amir for the men doubles as well as Adeline Tham Kah Yen in women single category represented Sakura College to the finals. The entire event went smoothly on Friday with little to no delay. Safety was prioritised as all participants are required to wear lifejackets.

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The 17th of October 2015 marked the 2nd day of the very much anticipated “Festival Sukan Air” organized by UNIMAS. 

The day began with the participants doing some light warm up exercises before being briefed on the event by their respective coaches. Sakura College representatives can be seen sporting light or dark pink shirts with one of the sleeves being black in colour to set them apart from the rest. 

Sakura College representatives did fairly well in the events they took part in. They scored a very close second next to Cempaka’s representatives for the second round ‘Perahu Kenyalang Campuran’ event, with the third place going to Allamanda’s representatives. The first round of the event was won by the BRC representatives. 

Sakura’s representatives got fourth for the first round of ‘Perahu Kenyalang Lelaki’ event, with the second round won by the representatives from Rafflesia College. The representative for the solo female event, Adeline Tham, managed to snag fifth out of seven places. Meanwhile, for the ‘Bergu Lelaki’ event, Sakura College got third place.

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Just after the clock struck 2:00 P.M. on October 17th, 2015, the IPT (institutions of higher learning) Borneo Regatta 2015 Tournament in conjunction with the Sports Water Festival 2015 between Inter-College Hostels of UNIMAS has brought peoples to crowd around the UNIMAS lake. Together with the Ministry of Education, UNIMAS Sports Centre honourably organized the event as to instil the spirit in students to participate actively in healthy activities such as water sports, apart from developing the teamwork vibes among students.

Being one of the popular activities in UNIMAS, this time’s Sports Water Festival exhibited some exceptional to the previous’ that IPT all around Borneo were invited. Of about 23 invited teams from various IPT in Borneo, however, only 4 managed to participate in in the regatta tournament which was Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Bintulu, Swinburne University of Technology, Institut Kemahiran MARA (IKM) Kuching and Universitas Tanjungpura (UNTAN) Indonesia.

Covered a distance of 500M, there were five categories to be conquered by the participants in order to grab the “Raja Tasik” (“The King of Lake”) title:

Hornbill Boat (Men) – Mix (Guest IPT)

Hornbill Boat (Mix) – Men (Guest IPT)

Hornbill Boat (Men) – Men (Faculty/Institutes/ Department/Division)

Hornbill Boat (Mix) – Mix (Colleges)

Hornbill Boat (Men) – Men (College)

The supports that the inaugural IPT Borneo Regatta received were very much ecstatically happening. Aided with some upbeat songs and professional emcees, the flow of the event managed to be handled efficiently. With the presence of UNIMAS Vice Chancellor, YBhg Prof Dato' Dr Mohamad Kadim bin Suaidi, the atmosphere around the lake during the tournament became even more vibrant and encouraging.

Competitions and the presentation of prizes to the winners were conducted alternatingly. From far they've came, Univesitas Tanjungpura (UNTAN) of Pontianak (Indonesia) whole-heartedly accepted the challenge that they managed to secure the first place for Hornbill Boat (Men) – Mix (Guest IPT) and Hornbill Boat (Mix) – Men (Guest IPT) of which making UNTAN to seize the most wanted title from the IPT Borneo Regatta 2015, “The King of Lake”.

UNIMAS on the other hand has let Swinburne, IKM and UPM to surrender to its position as the runner-up with the time taken of 2.22.15 behind UNTAN (2.20.64) for the Hornbill Boat (Mix) – Men (Guest IPT). Development Office and Bunga Raya College could be seen to have won the Hornbill Boat (Men) – Men (Faculty/Institutes/ Department/Division) and Hornbill Boat (Men) – Men (College) respectively. 

Being the only all-girls residential college in UNIMAS, Sakura College did not let the fact to burn down their intention to grab the chance to participate in the event. Set aside the “all-girls”, Sakura College has even sent representatives for the men categories by guest rowers. During the Hornbill Boat (Mix) – Mix (Colleges), Sakura College of which consisted of Sakura College staffs, residents and guest rowers could be seen rowing consistently across the lake to the finish line, leaving other competitors to be left very far behind. This has marked the winning of Sakura College on the category.

With the participation from other institutions of higher learning and the massive supports received from UNIMAS students, it has proved that Water Sports Festival between Inter-College Hostels of UNIMAS as well as the IPT Borneo Regatta 2015 has been a very successful event of the year. With the hope that sports water can be popularized to another level, such activities undoubtedly could trigger the eagerness in oneself to live a healthy lifestyle besides strengthening the bonds between the participants.

Not to forget about the vast amount of efforts that the organizers acted in in order for the event to be successfully held. Massive congratulations to all the participants and most importantly, congratulation to Sakura College of which with the winning on Hornbill Boat (Mix) – Mix (Colleges), it has indirectly brought up Sakura College name to another level.

For more pictures, kindly direct to Sakura College Official

Prepared by: Pliny Neilson, Imelia Kyra & Dg Nadila