KUCHING: Astro Kem Badminton (AKB) continues to strive for success in its concerted efforts to raise the standard of Malaysian children’s education through sports since it was launched in 2012.
Astro’s Group Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Henry Tan said that AKB has successfully trained approximately 18,000 school students through training and development programmes for badminton players at the national level over the past decade.
He said AKB had inculcated a superior identity and discipline among the country’s youth to face various challenges and dare to rise from any failure.
“Through the spirit of sportsmanship in AKB, these children will learn to be more resilient, disciplined, have the courage to bounce back from failure, as well as learn from mistakes and learn to accept each other’s strengths and weaknesses,” he said.
“In the past decade, apart from the last two years when we had lockdown during the pandemic), AKB has trained a total of 18,000 students. We manage to achieve this by monitoring all the programmes organised with dedication so that the next level of success can be achieved.
“We are not doing it just for the sake of doing it without producing good results,” he said during the press conference of Astro Kem Badminton 2022 at Arena Sukan, Simpang Tiga here today.
The last tour of the selection camp held here in Kuching was successfully held in four other locations across the country including Johor, Penang, Kuala Lumpur and Sabah with 1,537 participants.
Tan said 60 percent of the national youth team athletes are AKB alumni and among them, including national badminton player Jacky Kok, was born through this programme and went on to become who he is today.
“We are always ready to be the driving force for this success at an early stage, build children’s education from sports and then produce new champions for the country through AKB,” he added.
In previous years, he said, the top 30 participants from AKB would undergo intensive training in Tokyo, Japan as part of the badminton cooperation and development programmes between the two countries.
“However, due to the fact that COVID-19 is still around us and to avoid facing restrictions, any difficulties and sudden changes that may happen due to the pandemic, the grand finale programme for the top 60 AKB participants from all over the country will be held in Kuala Lumpur in December this year,” he added.
