The ASEAN Committee in Muscat (ACM) organized the 2nd ASEAN Sports Day on 22 March 2014 at the Sultan Qaboos Sports complex to strengthened the friendship bonds between ASEAN communities through sports. In line with the theme for the ASEAN Summit 2014, “Moving Forward in Unity to a Peaceful and Prosperous Community”, the event gathered close to 200 people coming from the communities of Brunei Darussalam, Indonesia, Malaysia, the Philippines, Singapore and Thailand whom participated in the friendly matches of badminton, basketball, futsal and table tennis.
The event was attended by the H.E Dato’ Dr. Haji Besar bin Haji Abu Bakar, Ambassador of Brunei Darussalam, H.E Sukanto, Ambassador of the Republic of Indonesia, H.E Dato’ Rustam Yahaya, Ambassador of Malaysia, H.E Pornchai Danvivathana, Ambassador of Thailand, Ms. Hjayceelyn M. Quintana, Charge d’affaires of the Republic of the Philippines and Mr. Richard Grosse, Consul General of the Republic of Singapore. The ASEAN Ladies Circle (ALC) in Muscat, comprising of spouses of the ASEAN ambassadors, also supported the event by preparing sumptuous home cooked lunch for the communities and donating interesting lucky draw prizes.
H.E Dato’ Rustam Yahaya, Chairman of ACM, gave a welcoming speech and thanked Mr. Ahmed Darwesh Al Balushi, Head of the Sporting Activity Department at the Sultan Qaboos Sports Complex and Mr. Mansoor Ayoob Al Balushi, the complex’s sports supervisor for their continued support in ensuring the success of the yearly event. Aside from sporting activities, children activities such as the ASEAN flags coloring contest, body painting and musical chair were also carried out during the event which saw more than 50 children taking part. Meanwhile, the ALC took the floor by organizing an aerobic session for all participants as a cooling down activity right before the start of the closing ceremony.
The closing ceremony saw all six community leaders receiving their mementos from the H.E Dato’ Rustam Yahaya, Chairman of ACM while YBhg. Datin Dr. Musrifah Sapardi, President of ALC, presented prizes to winners of the children activities. Ambassadors and respective spouses also took turn in drawing lucky numbers and presenting the prizes to twenty lucky draw winners. The lucky draw was indeed a heart stopping moment as everybody kept their eyes glued to their lucky draw numbers and calling out loud for their numbers to be drawn! As all good things must come to an end, the event ended with the customary group photograph of the ASEAN communities whom had positively supported and actively participated in the success organization of the ASEAN Sports Day 2014.
EMBASSY OF MALAYSIA, MUSCAT