By Prithikkashinie Vaithiesvaran
The participants of Shuttle Smash during the tournament. Source Prithikkashinie Vaithiesvaran
Engineering Campus, 26 May 2024 - People perceive badminton as an easy sport, however, it is impossible for some to even serve the shuttlecock past half the court. The Students’ Society of Electrical and Electronic Engineering (SEE) Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) organized Shuttle Smash, a badminton tournament at the USM Engineering Campus Sports Complex’s badminton court.
According to the vice project director, Prem Chandran, Electrical and Electronic Engineering 1, this competition was held to unleash the hidden talents of the students and to promote a healthy lifestyle within the students. They also managed to collect funds for future club activities.
“I felt happy and proud of the committee members as the event was up to my expectations. Although we reached the main objectives of the event, we were not able to reach the target participants, who were 14 pairs of players. However, we are happy that we were able to find 8 pairs of players during this hectic time”, said Prem.
He said he acknowledged that many of them were busy with their assignments and felt grateful that they took their time to support the event.
“We prepared earlier by arranging the tentative of the event and the mode of tournament. We decided on the point-based tournament compared to the knock-out tournament as we wanted everyone to have a fair competition” he added.
Prem also mentioned that they used an online scoreboard to ensure there were no malpractices.
“We started planning this event in January but only decided on the date in February. However, we only booked the court in April as we had to wait for the approval of our event. Our committee was worried that it might be fully booked for personal use as the tournament falls on a weekend”, he said.
“One of the main challenges we faced was finding participants. Many of them were reluctant to join the tournament as they were already involved in many activities. Some said they were afraid as they are not really good at badminton”, said the Assistant Head of the Participant Management Department, Muhammad Syahmi Irfan bin Abu Bakar, Electrical and Electronic Engineering 3.
He added that the burden was shared within them as the vice project director personally approached his contacts to scout for players for the event.
“Apart from that, it was easy to manage the interested participants as they completed their payment fast and they were able to proceed with the registration process”, said Syahmi.
The secretary of the project, Nur Nisa Alya binti Mohamad Azidin, Electrical and Electronic Engineering 3, said the process prior to receiving approval was quite smooth as the top committee had a clear vision of the project.
“It was easy for me to do the paperwork and the tentative of the project as we discussed on the outcomes and the way we wanted to conduct it. I also did my work according to the deadlines which made it easy for us to plan the event”, she said.
She also mentioned that she was proud of the multimedia team as they made an attractive poster to be shared on social media.
“I am glad that I participated in this event because I was able to win a hamper”, said a participant, Yip Kok Sheng, Mechanical Engineering 2.
“There aren’t many sports competitions held at the campus level. Most of them are usually held at a larger scale, which requires more training. I did not feel very pressured before this tournament and I also did not have to sacrifice the time needed to attend my classes”, he added.
Prem also mentioned that he is happy that he successfully completed his first project as the vice project director. He said he looks forward to leading more projects and societies as it helped him to increase his soft skills.
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