Youth and Sports Ministry to unveil conditions for matching grant applications soon

SHAH ALAM, - The Youth and Sports Ministry will soon announce the conditions for application of a matching grant to help sports industry practitioners, said Minister Hannah Yeoh.

She said the ministry would ensure that the matching grant of RM40 million this year given by the Finance Ministry would be coordinated properly in an effort to improve the performance of national athletes.

"The main objective of this matching grant given to the ministry is to help improve the performance of athletes by participating in more tournaments so that they can assess their current form.

"The ministry will announce the conditions for application soon because we have just finalised the terms. Later, all parties including national sports associations and companies organising sports programmes can apply," she added.

She was speaking to reporters at the closing ceremony of the Asia Pacific Invitational (API) Dodgeball Championship at the Shah Alam Sports Complex (Panasonic Stadium) here today.

The championship, which was held in Malaysia for the first time, began on Thursday with the participation of 140 clubs from 20 countries. Malaysian clubs grabbed the top three spots in the men’s category through the teams GOAT, Saints and Blitz.

In the women’s category, Elites of Singapore finished first while Malaysia took the second and third places through Valkyries 1 and Anak Melaya respectively.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Association of Dodgeball (MAD) president Datuk N. Radhakrishnan expressed satisfaction with the organisation of API, which attracted encouraging fan support.

"We had 500 games for the last four days of tournament and all foreign teams were very happy and said if we organise the tournament again they will come. For me the biggest success is the fact that the (Malaysian) men’s team won big,” he said. - BERNAMA