Labuan Challenge a splashing success
By Zasika Musdi

Brunei third in International Boat Race. - PHOTO: NURUL BADARUDDIN

Wow! That's a lot of big fish. - PHOTO: NURUL BADARUDDIN

Participants from Brunei Darussalam with Pg Hj Noorezamy Pg Hj Othman from
Tourism Malaysia in Brunei. - PHOTO: NURUL BADARUDDIN

Participants of the Cross-Channel Swimming Challenge making a dash to the sea. - PHOTO: ZASIKA MUSDI

The pillow fight challenge. - PHOTO: NURUL BADARUDDIN

The Malaysia Water Festival, held recently in Langkawi and Labuan, was a splashing success.

The Labuan International Sea Challenge (LISC) held from Apr 19-27 featured 34 sea and beach activities and offered more than RM200,000 in cash prizes including trophies, medals and certificates.

It brought together the region's best anglers, kayakers, swimmers, oarsmen and water sport enthusiasts to participate in high-level competitions covering big-game fishing, open sea kayaking, round island kayaking, boat race, and island-to-island free style swimming.

Participants from Brunei Darussalam participated in only two of the main events (Apr 26-27), namely the Round Island Kayak Challenge and the Labuan International Boat Race.

The Round Island Kayak Challenge introduced in 2003 and comprising individual and double categories, covered a distance of 54km race - one of the longest and toughest kayak races in Malaysia.

The course ran along the perimeter shoreline of Labuan Island and definitely tested the skills and stamina of local and international participants. Brunei's Hassan bin Hj Zainal, clocking an impressive time of 5 hours 25 minutes for the Men's Single Open, came in second place, while Ariffin bin Hj Zainal and Abdul Mahmod bin Hj Mohammad also came in second place with a time of 5 hours 8 minutes in the Men's Doubles Open.

The Labuan International Boat Race, introduced in 2003, has attracted keen participation from Brunei Darussalam and Indonesia throughout the years. This year, Brunei Darussalam's own Waktu 'A' emerged as the second runners-up, bringing home prize money worth RM6,000 and trophies.

In another section of the Labuan International Sea Sport Complex, catches from the Labuan International Game Fishing Tournament could be seen stacked onto long tables.

The fish, ranging from Barracudas to Red Snappers to Giant Groupers, were caught within a duration of six days in a specific fishing destination, a 16-hour journey away. Judging from the sizes and total number caught, there's enough to feed a whole nation!

Another main event was the cross-channel swimming challenge, a swim covering 5.4km of open sea towards Pulau Papan and back to Labuan, which attracted foreign participants from Japan, Australia and even contestants as young as eight years.

Apart from the main events, a number of other mini-competitions and side activities were also held throughout the duration of the festival. One of them was the 'Malay Joget Aerobics Dance', a very interesting and unique aerobics session where participants did 'silat-style' aerobic exercises to joget music.

This aerobics session reminded me of the statement made by one of the Tourism Malaysia officials during our orientation presentation, who said, "The beauty of the Malay Kungfu is that we cannot fight without music... so before we start, we'll say 'Music Please!'"

Nearly all media representatives (from Brunei Darussalam, Malaysia, Singapore, India and China), as well as participants from the Labuan International Boat Race, danced along to the 'silat-type aerobics'

The superbly organised event attracted people of all ages. Even the smallest event, the Hermit Crab race attracted quite a huge crowd. This race is also quite popular in certain regions of the Caribbean, such as Jamaica, where they were placed in the centre of a ring and whichever crab reached the outside of the ring first wins.

Other activities that also attracted huge crowds were the children's story telling, fashion show and colouring competition, the treasure hunt, beach volleyball, pillow fight, pole climbing challenge, traditional food competition, duck catching and jet skiing.

The finale of the Sea Challenge was also one that was not easily forgotten - participants from all the competitions, as well as the loyal crowd who came every day to show the competitors their support, gathered at the stage area of the Sea Complex and were entertained by a myriad of performers, including veteran singer Zainal Abidin, famous for his song 'Hijau'.

And what is a closing ceremony without fireworks! It was, all in all, an excellent end to a very splendidly organised event.

Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin