By Asmahanim Amir
Pictures by Abdul Raai Osman and Shahiddan Saidi

BANGI, 5 Feb 2018 – A total of 24.1 percent gold medal collection at the SEA Games 2017 are coming from Higher Education Institutions athletes.

Minister of Higher Education, Dato’ Seri Idris Jusoh said Higher Education Institutions Sport (SUKIPT) 2018 is a good platform to polish new sport talents to the highest level.

“It means that IPT can help Malaysia. Because of that, this SUKIPT is to ensure that we can produce high performance athletes in the future,” he said at the Opening Ceremony of SUKIPT 2018 at Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) Stadium,  here, recently.

He said SUKIPT 2018 is an international sport tournament because for the first time received participation from India.

India represented by Christ University, competing in cricket.

Three ASEAN countries that also participate in SUKIPT 2018 is Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore who represented by Nanyang Technological University.

Thailand represented by Thaksin University, Nakhon Si Thammarat Rajabhat University, Phuket Rajabhat University, Suratthani University and Thammasat University

Indonesia represented by Universitas Negeri Jakarta and Universitas Surabaya

SUKIPT 2018 is a fourth edition, bet 238 gold medals, 238 silver medals and 399 bronze medals will be grabbed by participating athletes.

The sport was participated by 78 contingents, namely 20 public universities, 42 private universities, nine international universities, five institutes of teacher education, a polytechnic and a community college. It runs from February 2 to February 10.