20 October, 2023

BSKL Students win medals at the National Athletics Championships for school students (MSSM)

The National Athletics Championships for school students (MSSM) was held from the 14th to 18th October 2023 in the state of Negeri Sembilan which played host to this year’s championship.

Over 1900 student athletes from the 13 states and 3 federal territories competed in this year's games which is an annual event to determine the national champions in 28 track and field events across the Under 12, Under 15 and Under 18 age categories and is considered the highest level of competition for school students in Malaysia.

As always, the athletes who participated in this meet competed under the colours of their home state and have all been selected through a rigorous selection process based on their performance in the individual district and state level championships, held across the entire nation earlier this year. Athletes who made it to their state teams and participated in the nationals would have spent the last 5 months in rigorous training and grueling regional competitions to earn their spot in their respective state teams.

BSKL’s Riess (Y11, aged 15) and Sasha (Y10, aged 14), who won golds and broke records at the Petaling Utama district and Selangor State championships earlier this year, were amongst the 90 athletes selected from across the entire state to represent Selangor at the national games. These 90 athletes were selected from over 20,000 athletes who participated in the regional competitions. Incidentally both Riess and Sasha were named Athletes of the year for their age categories at the Selangor state athletics championship held last month.

While both Riess, who was selected to compete in the Under 18 category, and Sasha, who was selected to compete in the Under 15 category, made us proud when BSKL received notification of their inclusion in the state team, they went on to delight us further when they both won medals in their events in MSSM, earning their place amongst the top athletes of the country in their age categories.

Riess Ling won the silver medal in the Under 18 javelin event for boys with a throw of 53.78 metres and Sasha Philip won the silver in the Under 15 Discus event for girls with a throw of 31.57 metres. Being a medal winner at these games is amongst the highest possible recognition that a student athlete can achieve in Malaysia and BSKL could not be more proud of both of them and their achievements.