SANDAKAN – If not for a good Samaritan, the dream of a group of teenage taekwondo exponents representing Sabah in a tournament would have been dashed when they missed their flight to Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
This prompted Riniejene Anthony to start a crowdfunding campaign on her Facebook page, expressing her hope that Sabahans would assist the team in obtaining new tickets to KL.
In just four hours, at 1am today, Riniejene raised RM18,000 to pay for the six tickets.
The five participants and one manager were able to obtain flight tickets, with four taking a 7am flight and two taking an 11am flight.
Following this, Riniejene has urged the public to stop transferring money into her bank account.
Meanwhile, head coach and team manager Safuan Fathy Amran told Scoop that five students and a manager, who are part of his 17-person team, missed their flight after the earlier one was delayed.
Safuan was taking 17 participants, aged 7 to 17, to the Hwarang International Taekwondo Championship at Titiwangsa Stadium, which will take place from March 1 to 3. The weighing-in session starts today.
However, the team’s flight schedule was separated into two as there were parents who had purchased the flight tickets later, resulting in five participants and a manager taking a connecting flight – from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan, and to KL.
Unfortunately, the flight from Kota Kinabalu to Sandakan via AirAsia was delayed and they were unable to catch their connecting flight to Kuala Lumpur via Malaysia Airlines.
The six individuals went back to Kota Kinabalu by air as the next available flight to KL was from the Kota Kinabalu International Airport, Safuan said.
His Facebook post about the situation was widely shared, with many sympathising with the stranded individuals.
Safuan, who was already in KL with the rest of the team, said the participants and their parents had sacrificed a lot to prepare for the championship.
“My team has trained hard for this championship. They train for four hours per day, three days a week during school days and from morning until evening almost every day during the school holiday.
“Their parents had also used RM1,500 for their transportation costs. The last-minute flight to KL cost more than RM3,000 per ticket.”
The participants were from the interior Sabah of Pitas and Kota Marudu, and their expenses were fully funded by their parents. – February 29, 2024