MASUM BEACH GAMES

Figure 1-1

1.0 Introduction

1.1 Background

This is the first year that masum beach games has been held. The 5 events contested were: beach football, beach running, beach netball, beach volleyball, and beach takraw (just put the word "beach"in front of the game and it will fit right in. XD) Basically the 3 sports that do not have well defined standards are beach running, beach takraw and beach netball. Hence the organizers were the creators of the rules.

Figure 2-1, 2-2, 2-3, 2-4

UTM Team (Clockwise from Top Left: Women's volleyball, Men's volleyball, the crazy football dudes and superstar/bus driver)

We reached Port Dickson Polytechnic on thurs at 5 something and were accommodated with the rest of the unis. Everything was arranged by utm: accom, transport, allowance, clothing, etc (A million thanks to Mr. Rizam, Mr. Idris, Kak Zul, Abang Afiq, Abang Haikal). So all we had to do was fool around on thurs and fri, then run on sat and sun, a pleasant change from rushing to the bus station and finding a decent place to spend the night!

1.2 Objective

Memperkenalkan sukan pantai kepada para pelajar IPTA dan

menggalakkan aktiviti sukan di kawasan pantai. hahaha...

2.0 Methodology

2.1 Participants

Due to Ting being unable to form a women's team (not persuasive or too shy?), utm only sent 1 men's team (Me, Wong, Zaheen and Fitkry-new dude). There were 16 teams in the men's category, among them were a couple of familiar faces UM(Amirul, Azwan and Roger) and the UPNM triathletes.

Figure 3-1

New kid on the block

2.2 Research Instruments

Legs

2.3 Research Procedure

Fastest 3 runners timing will be taken into consideration. Teams were released in 2 minute intervals, to avoid congestion at the obstacle course. The track was 80% beach and 20% road with 4 obstacles included (commando crawl 10m, 10foot wall, tires, and 10 hurdles) which was tiring like hell! Just try jumping hurdles on the beach where you can't jump off properly.... your privates will be in serious danger.. hahaha... Our "strategy"? Run the prelims all out, sleep, then run the finals all out again!

Figure 4-1, 4-2, 4-3, 4-4

3.0 Findings and Discussion

3.1 Preliminaries

Zaheen ran a 20min, me and Wong each 30s behind. Our average should have been around 20:30 but the results were 21+, this shows that there is a time displacement between the timing chip system and the starting clock. 1st in prelims... but wouldn't hold back even if I could do it again... 1st was a great confidence booster man! 1thing i learned about Zaheen from this race was that his level of confidence and competence was exceptional, while me(hurdles), Wong(wall) and Fitkry(wall) were each worried about the obstacles, he never doubted that he could complete them, and was the fastest among us too!

3.2 Finals

Regrettably, we were 3rd, behind UITM (avg19:30 mins) and USM(avg 20+mins). There was a bit of controversy, and many people were "beach"ing and making accusations. I felt like "beach"ing too.... but accusations without concrete evidence are not quite fair. Fitkry had a cold but still performed admirably even though it was his first race.

4.0 Recommendations

4.1 Recommendations Based on Findings

Train at hurdles before hand(hurdles were a "beach" for me...)

4.2 Recommendations for Future Studies

-Mass start perhaps?

-A safer wall

-Cordon off the running track so there won't be an issue of ppl running on the compact sand and on the grass.

-use a starting mat for the timing chip at the start too.

5.0 Conclusions

1. UTM did not win a gold this outing. The best performance was a silver for the women's volleyball.

2. Found out that no matter how hard I try, I'm unable to take a race with the word masum attached in front as "for fun".

3. The beach was beautiful.

"Where oceans bleed into the sky" (Linkin Park, The Catalyst)