DISABLED people who are active in sports were given due recognition when a technical and coaching course was hosted for them at the Youth and Sports Complex in Batu Uban here recently.
The four-day basic course was jointly organised by the State Youth and Sports department and the Penang Disabled People Sports and Recreation Association (Pesron).
State youth and sports department paralympic sports development officer Kho Chin Hong said 37 candidates from the northern region of Perlis (8), Kedah (11) and Penang (18) participated in the course.
He said the course was conducted by experienced and qualified coaches, Yogasveran Kanagarajah and Anbarasu Subramaniam, who were both former national athletes.
"The main objective of organising this course was for participants to get familarised with the technical rules and techniques of athletics and also to develop and produce more technical officials and coaches.
"By organising this workshop, we hope to give basic coaching, training and officiating knowledge and skills to those involved in disabled athletics."
Chin Hong said the department and Pesron also hope to identify new talents and at the same time encourage the disabled community to participate actively in sports.
Pesron president associate professor Dr Tiun Ling Ta said with the completion of the basic course, those who participated have been formally trained to be coaches and technical officials.
"Disabled people are not aliens, we, too, are ordinary human beings but with a defect, I sincerely hope society fully accepts us as one of everyone.
"I also hope parents with disabled children would shed their inferiority complex and come forward and allow their children to participate in the various sports for the disabled children," he said after giving out the certificates to the participants.
Ling Ta said Pesron, with the cooperation of the state youth and sports department, has been organising many sports, including athletics, lawn bowling, tenpin bowling, badminton, power lifting, and wheelchair tennis
He said Pesron would be organising boccia, a combination of bowling and chair, within the next few months.
The Universiti Sains Malaysia social science lecturer, who himself is disabled, said the course has also enabled Pesron to identify new talents.
Ling Ta, who is also the Malaysian Disabled People Sports and Recreation Association president, said Penang has already started preparations for next year's Perlis Malaysia Games.
Rekhraj Singh Jaswant Singh from Kedah said he learned a lot, and he hopes that he would be selected to attend more courses of such nature.
Penangite Shahida Amira Sazali is very enthusiastic after the course and is raring to teach whatever she has learned, to her charges.
Participant Rajini Subramaniam, a disabled school teacher from Penang, said she is now better equipped to train her students.
Read more: Recognition for 'OKU' sportsmen - Northern - New Straits
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