PUTRAJAYA: More than 400 students from Tamil schools nationwide will participate in the inaugural Tamil Schools Sports Championship this Friday.
Deputy Education Minister Datuk P. Kamalanathan said the students will be competing in the three-day event held at Sekolah Sukan Tunku Mahkota Ismail, Johor.
"This is the first time we will be bringing together all Tamil school pupils from 11 states in a sporting event at national level.
"There will be seven categories which are the 100m, 200m, 800m, 4x100m, 4x200m, long jump and shot put.
"Previously, we had a lot of Indian athletes but now the number has dwindled. We want to create a pathway for the new athletes and produce more champions among Indian students," he said at the pre-launch of Tamil Schools Sports Championship, here, today.
Kamalanathan said he hoped the event would unleash talents among the Indians students in sports activities and that more Indian students would be successful in both academics and co-curricular activities.
At the event, Kamalanathan presented the state flags to the supervisors of participating schools.
Also present was the ministry's Education Sports Division director Mahender Singh.