KUALA LUMPUR: The Youth and Sports Ministry (KBS) has allocated a matching grant worth RM72,000 to the organisers of the world’s first indoor vertical drone race – Drone Race Asia 2023 – here.
Its minister, Hannah Yeoh said the grant not only aims to boost the popularity of the sports but also to help the national team improve their world ranking.
“When you have a competition, it will help improve the (team’s) ranking and measure their performance against higher-level teams.
“I think it (vertical drone race) is still very new in Malaysia. The fact that they can do it the first time for something like that, I must thank everybody who made this work,” she told reporters after officiating the Drone Race Asia 2023, here, today.
Hannah also felt that this kind of new sport would provide a meaningful avenue for the younger generation and divert them from futile pursuits.
The US$5,000 three-day tournament kicked off yesterday and involves eight teams, including Malaysia, the United States, Spain, Thailand and Singapore.
The event is co-organised by the DRA Drone Racing Club, which is registered under the Sports Development Act 1996, and the Magic Beans Alchemy Sdn Bhd.
In another development, Hannah said the national football team’s achievement in climbing seven spots to be placed 130th in the FIFA world ranking proved that all the plans carried out by the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM), including the appointment of South Korean Kim Pan Gon as head coach, had brought a positive impact.
“I see that in one year (since being appointed Youth and Sports Minister), the involvement of Pan Gon has brought results,” she said after the launch of the 17th Royal Selangor Club-Datuk Chu Ah Nge junior international football tournament this morning.
According to the website www.fifa.com, the national team accumulated a total of 1,122.87 points to move up from the 137th position held since Oct 26.
This positive development follows Malaysia’s success in Group D of the second round of the 2026 World Cup/2027 Asian Cup Qualifiers, defeating Kyrgyzstan 4-3 on Nov 16 and Taiwan 1-0 on Nov 21.
FAM are on a mission to ensure that the Harimau Malaya are in the top 120 by the end of this year.–Bernama
