Two national sailors who are students from the Faculty of Sports Science and Recreation (FSR), Universiti Teknologi MARA (UiTM) represented Malaysia at the Tokyo Olympic Games that took place from July 23 to August 8, 2021.
Seasoned national sailor Khairulnizam Afendy is a three-time Olympian and a final year Bachelor of Sports Science (Hons) student whereas Olympic debutant Juni Karimah Noor Jamali is the first-year Diploma in Sports Studies student.
In the men’s Laser Standard event, Khairulnizam succeeded in improving his ranking for three consecutive Olympic Games as he finished at the 28th spot as compared to the 35th and 47th spots in Rio 2016 and London 2012, respectively.
Out of the ten races, his best performance was recorded in race six where he finished at 13th place. The 28-year-old was also the first Malaysian to qualify for the Tokyo Olympics after he took home the silver medal in the Laser Standard event at the 2018 Asian Games in Jakarta.
Juni, along with her teammate Nuraisyah Jamil, qualified for the Tokyo Olympic Games after finishing 5th in the women’s international 470 events at the 2019 Asian Championships in China. Although the duo faced a tough debut at the Games, including a damaged spinnaker in race eight that sent them to the bottom of the standings, the sailing pair fought back with an 11th place finish in the last race and completed their maiden Olympic campaign at the 19th spot.
Despite facing unprecedented challenges due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Khairulnizam and Juni gave their very best at the Tokyo Olympic Games. Undeterred by the pressure and stress that come with the anticipation of competing against the world’s best, Khairulnizam and Juni even elected to take their online semester examinations while under quarantine in Tokyo ahead of the Games. Before leaving for Tokyo, UiTM developed and delivered bespoke polyester spandex sailing apparel that are adaptable to both hot and cold climates to Khairulnizam.
The Faculty of Sports Science and Recreation, UiTM is proud of their accomplishments. The perseverance, dedication and determination that they have shown to achieve academic excellence, as well as their athletic dreams, will be an inspiration to all the other student-athletes in UiTM to follow in their footsteps.