“We always focus on a holistic development of our students and strived for a balance lifestyle.” said Prof. Datin Dr. Rosnani, Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy
Cyberjaya, 2nd March 2017 – Cyberjaya University College of Medical Sciences (CUCMS), a top-tier university, bagged 9 gold medals at the 10th MyPSA National Pharmacy Sports Carnival (NPSC) 2017 that was held in Shah Alam on 24 to 26 February 2017. The event saw the gathering of pharmacy students from 19 universities under the umbrella of the Malaysian Pharmacy Students’ Association (MyPSA).
CUCMS’ Pharmacy students won the competition with 9 gold, 3 silver, and 5 bronze medals and were named as the overall champion for this year’s sports carnival. The contingent was led by Mohd Najib Mustafa, a year-3 pharmacy student as a team leader and Mr. Masro Mohamad as the advisor.
Prof. Datin Dr. Rosnani, Dean of the Faculty of Pharmacy said, “We are so proud of our pharmacy students and this is a good start for 2017 as we are the first private university to have won the 10th MyPSA National Pharmacy Sports Carnival. We always focus on a holistic development of our students and strived for a balance lifestyle.”
The 9 gold medals were gained from the 100m men, 200m men, 4 x 100m men, 4 x 100m women, 4 x 400m women, Basketball men, Basketball women, Futsal women and Petanque women. The team also bagged silver in the 4 x 400m men, Futsal men and Petanque men. The CUCMS team won the bronze medals in 200m women, Volleyball men, Takraw men, Tennis single men and Tennis single women events.
“To win a sports competition it requires years of sports development, hard work, perseverance and high discipline and commitment. Although it is not easy to win this NPSC, it is not impossible to win when we use the right strategy, techniques and of course when we have it at the right time. My advice to the students is ‘Hard work beats talent every time!’”, said Mr. Masro Mohamad, Advisor of Bureau of Sports & Recreation, Faculty of Pharmacy.
The university is the first private institution to have become the champion of this tournament in its 10-year history. Throughout the decade, International Islamic University Malaysia (IIUM) has been the overall champion for seven consecutive years, 2008 - 2014 and Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM) won for two consecutive years from 2015 to 2016.
Mohd Najib Mustafa, Faculty of Pharmacy (Year 3) student and the team leader for CUCMS’ contingent to NPSC this year said, “It was a great experience for me, personally and the rest of the team, we enjoyed every second and it has given us the opportunity to unleash our team’s talents. We never expected to win but, all the efforts and commitments that we have put paid back when we were announced as the overall winner.”
“Individual victory feels great, but what feels greater is to win as a team. Together, all of us can achieve more. Kudos to everyone in our CUCMS Faculty of Pharmacy. It's sweet to share success. This is my last hurrah as a senior student and I hope juniors will keep the purple flag flying high.” said Mohd Ashraf Anshary B. Abdul Latiif, Year 4 Student, Gold Medallist for 100m men and bronze medallist for Volleyball men.
Lavanya A/P Chanara, Year 1 Student, Gold Medallist for 4 X 100m women and 4 X 400m women said, “It can be said as a precious memory of a lifetime for me and I am so proud and happy to be a part of this pharmily and to represent my very own university. All the sweats, tears and hard works finally paid off and I would like to thank my teammates and friends for supporting us to achieve a good result. In a nutshell, "victory is paid for in sweats, courage, preparation and to be a great champion, you must believe you are the best, if you are not, pretend that you are!".”
“The support from our supporters and lecturers, these wins were probably not achievable. I feel so proud when I won the medals. This proves that even private universities can match the abilities of our bigger brothers, the public universities if we put our mind to it. My motivating factor is, of course, my family, my friends, coach, and most importantly the contingent. I feel that they really push me to train harder to achieve victory.” said Mohd Nor Akmal Ashraf Bin Idrus, Year 3 Student, Gold medallist for Basketball men and 200m men and silver medallist for 4 X 400m men.
The event was a very competitive one with all teams giving their best. CUCMS edged the likes of USM, UiTM, AIMST, IMU, MSU, Taylors, Monash and the rest in coming up tops this year.