It was a gathering of sporting greats and enthusiastic youths at the Haruka Bakery @ Hollywood Coffee at i-City Mall in Shah Alam, Selangor this afternoon.
Household names like former national badminton players Ong Ewe Hock and Hafiz Hashim, ex-hockey player turned coach Stephen Van Huizen, former cyclists M. Kumaresan, Musairi Musa and Nor Effandy Rosli, ex-walker Yuan Yufang, ex-sprinter Datuk Paduka Mumtaz Jaafar and shooter Johnathan Wong were joined by undergraduates from the Heriot-Watt University to witness and celebrate a historic occasion – the launch of the Malaysia Olympians Association’s (MOA) new logo.
The association also launched ‘The Spirit of Olympism 2023‘ fundraising campaign.
The man central to the fundraising campaign is avid cyclist Alex Goh.
The 62-year-old Muar native volunteered to cycle from Shah Alam to Johor Bahru to raise awareness about MOA, raise funds and spread awareness of the Olympism spirit.
Goh’s first stop is Morib, Selangor, 42km from the Shah Alam mall. Goh will end his journey at Paradigm Mall, Johor Bahru, on Feb 18.
“I’m happy to be part of this campaign. I love cycling and at this age, I love that I’m still able to cycle long distances,” said Goh.
“This is a great way for me to meet people and spread the Olympism message,” added Goh, who is in the Malaysian Books of Records as the first Malaysian to run in the top 10 world marathons.
MOA president Noraseela Khalid thanked Goh for his effort and hoped it would mark the beginning of more people appreciating sports, en route to creating a larger pool of talent in Malaysia.
“Malaysia first participated at the 1956 Melbourne Olympics. From then till now, we have 354 Olympians,” said the 400m hurdler, who competed in the 2012 London Olympics.
“We have only participated in 20 sports. This shows that we need more talents to finally win the elusive Olympic gold medal,” she added.
Present to officiate the event was Youth and Sports Minister, Hannah Yeoh. She pledged RM20,000 to MOA to organise programmes.
Meanwhile, Vincent Lay was named the winner of the MOA logo design competition. The first-year statistics data science student from Heriot Watt University picked up RM300 from MOA and RM800 worth of vouchers from Haruka Bakery.
Twentytwo13 is the partner for The Spirit of Olympism fundraising campaign. The other partners are Haruka Bakery, WCT Malls Management and Heriot-Watt University.
Supporters include Malaysian Olympism in Action Society, Terramed Physio and Rehab and Liquid Marketing.
Well-wishers can contribute to the fund when they meet Goh at the various stops.
Alternatively, those who want to contribute to MOA can do so by banking in the funds to:
Public Bank Bhd
Account number: 3107929130
Name: PERSATUAN OLYMPIAN MALAYSIA (MOA)
Reference: OlympismFundrasingMOA
