Sabah FCAS International Dragon Boat Race: 141 teams to battle for honours
Published on: Tue, May 13, 2025 Text Size: WSG Banana team members are training hard for the dragon boat race. Kota Kinabalu: Registration for the 10th Sabah FCAS International Dragon Boat Race 2025 has officially closed, with a total of 141 teams from Sabah, Brunei, Hong Kong and Singapore competing across 11 categories. The participating teams, including WSG Banana under WSG Group, have begun intensive training in preparation for the race. Organising chairlady cum The Federation of Chinese Associations Sabah (FCAS) deputy president Datuk Susan Wong Siew Guen recently visited the teams' training site at Kinabalu Yacht Club in Tanjung Aru. She was accompanied by the club's commodore Albert Shim and bosun Omar to inspect the venue in preparation for the team managers' briefing and draw of lanes, scheduled for Friday (May 16) at 9am at Kinabalu Yacht Club. Susan expressed her gratitude to Albert and the Kinabalu Yacht Club for once again allowing the use of their venue as the training ground for the dragon boat race, and for providing facilities and services to ensure athletes can train in a safe and pleasant environment. 'Last year was our first time receiving permission from the Kinabalu Yacht Club to train here. 'This year, we decided to hold the draw of lanes and team briefing at the club for the first time. 'That's why I came today to inspect the location and ensure preparations are in place for the May 16 events,' Susan said. Albert personally welcomed and accompanied Susan during her inspection and expressed his appreciation for the federation in choosing the yacht club as one of the event's venues. 'It is our honour to contribute to Chinese cultural activities and the dragon boat race, and to allow more people, especially the athletes, to experience and learn about the Kinabalu Yacht Club,' he said. WSG Bananas led by WSG Group director Vanessa Wong was coincidentally undergoing their training at the club. Susan, along with Albert and Omar, offered Vanessa, Melissa Wong and their team words of encouragement and support. 'This year, a total of 141 teams will compete in 11 categories. The response remains very enthusiastic. Thank you to everyone for your support for the dragon boat race and Chinese culture,' Susan said. She urged the public to participate in the series of dragon boat race activities to be held from Friday (May 16) to Sunday (May 18), and to experience this exciting cultural and sporting festival unique to Sabah. The 10th Sabah FCAS International Dragon Boat Race 2025 will be held from May 16 to 18 at Likas Bay this year, with a total cash prize of RM94,000 to be won. Day one (May 16) of the event entails a briefing and draw of lanes for the participating teams at Kinabalu Yacht Club. A sunset beach party will be held at 5pm in the evening at Likas Bay to welcome the participants. Day two (May 17) kicks off with the sportsmen oath taking ceremony at 6.30am and heat races for 11 categories till noon, followed by a seven-kilometre Dragon Run at 3.30pm. The Head of State Tun Musa Aman has agreed to grace the final race day on May 18 and officiate the event with drum beating and Chinese dumpling (zong zi) offering ceremony and thereafter present prizes to the winning teams. Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor is also expected to grace the event as a special guest, along with state cabinet ministers, members of parliaments, assemblymen and other dignitaries. * Follow us on Instagram and join our Telegram and/or WhatsApp channel(s) for the latest news you don't want to miss. * Do you have access to the Daily Express e-paper and online exclusive news? Check out subscription plans available.
Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express's Telegram channel. Daily Express Malaysia
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
30 minutes ago
- The Star
Wushu team shift gears to Brazil after strong China campaign
Impressive: Tan Cheong Min struck gold in the nanquan and nandao at the World Games. KUALA LUMPUR: The national wushu exponents will need to refocus for the World Championships in Brasilia, Brazil, from Sept 1-7 after their recent run of strong results. They excelled in two major competitions on Chinese soil in the past month – the Asia Taolu Cup in Jilin and the World Games in Chengdu – bringing home an impressive medal haul.
The Star
12 hours ago
- The Star
World's first humanoid robot games begin in China
Engineers follow their robots as they compete in the 400M run during the World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Aug 15, 2025. — AFP BEIJING: The world's first-ever humanoid robot games began on Aug 15 in Beijing, with over 500 androids alternating between jerky tumbles and glimpses of real power as they compete in events from the 100-metre hurdles to kung fu. Hundreds of robotics teams from 16 countries are going for gold at the Chinese capital's National Speed Skating Oval, built for the 2022 Winter Olympics. The games include traditional sports like athletics and basketball, as well as practical tasks such as medicine categorisation and cleaning. "I believe in the next 10 years or so, robots will be basically at the same level as humans," enthusiastic 18-year-old spectator Chen Ruiyuan told AFP. Human athletes might not be quaking in their boots just yet. At one of the first events on Friday morning, five-aside football, 10 robots the size of seven-year-olds shuffled around the pitch, often getting stuck in a scrum or falling over en masse. However, in a 1500-metre race, domestic champion Unitree's humanoids stomped along the track at an impressive clip, easily outpacing their rivals. The fastest robot AFP witnessed finished in 6:29:37, a far cry from the human men's world record of 3:26:00. One mechanical racer barrelled straight into a human operator. The robot remained standing, while the human was knocked flat, though did not appear to be injured. 'National strategy' Robot competitions have been held for decades, but the 2025 World Humanoid Robot Games is the first to focus specifically on robots that resemble human bodies, organisers said. The Chinese government has poured support into robotics hoping to lead the industry. Beijing has put humanoids in the "centre of their national strategy", the International Federation of Robotics wrote in a paper on Thursday. "The government wants to showcase its competence and global competitiveness in this field of technology," it added. Authorities are working to raise awareness of the sector across society. Cui Han, accompanying her 10-year-old, told AFP that her son's school had organised and paid for the trip to the Games. "I hope it will encourage him to learn more about these new technologies," she said. In March, China announced plans for a one-trillion-yuan fund to support technology startups, including those in robotics and AI. The country is already the world's largest market for industrial robots, official statistics show, and in April, Beijing held what organisers dubbed the world's first humanoid robot half-marathon. Chen, the spectator, told AFP he was about to begin studying automation at university. "Coming here can cultivate my passion for this field," he said. "My favourite is the boxing, because... it requires a lot of agility and I can really see how the robots have improved from before." Meanwhile, at the kung fu competition area, a pint-sized robot resembling one from the popular Transformer series attempted to execute a move, but fell flat on its front. It spun around on the floor as it struggled to get back up, the crowd happily cheering. – AFP
Barnama
14 hours ago
- Barnama
Wei Chong-Kai Wun To Push For Better Outing At World Championship
KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 15 (Bernama) -- National men's doubles player, Man Wei Chong admitted that he and his partner Tee Kai Wun are in better physical condition to participate in this year's World Badminton Championships which will be held in Paris, France from Aug 25-31. He said that compared to the inaugural edition he participated in in 2023, he feels they are now more prepared and hope to do better by aiming to bring home a medal for Malaysia. "If you compare the last two years, this year's performance has improved a bit. Although not much, it is better than the last two years. bootstrap slideshow "So hopefully we can do our best than before," he told reporters after the national badminton team's training session at the Badminton Academy Malaysia (ABM) today. Meanwhile, Wei Chong, when asked about his draw with Kai Wun in the tournament, admitted that being placed as the seeded pair gave them a slight advantage when they would not be playing in the first round. However, he said that did not mean they could be complacent given that there were several great names they had to fight if they wanted to go further. "I think our first round was good because we started in the round of 64 and after that we might face the French pair, Toma Junior Popov-Christo Popov. They are also quite strong and it is not certain that they can win again, playing at home. So we really hope to be able to perform later,' he said. For the record in the 2023 edition, Wei Chong-Kai Wun ended the competition in the third round after losing to the Chinese pair, Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang 21-16, 14-21, 21-17.
