The Western Michigan University (WMU) will host Malaysian Midwest Games International 2013 for the third time in 16 years. It hosted the previous editions in 1997 and 2001.
The university will welcome more than 1,500 Malaysian students for the annual sporting event, May 24-26. The number of participants will be double of 2001 when approximately 800 Malaysian students took part in the games at WMU.
"The games date back to the 1970s and started out as a modest athletic congregation of Malaysian students studying at Midwestern schools, and have grown tremendously in popularity over the years," said Satveer Thind, director of the games' organizing committee and president of WMU's Malaysian Student Association.
Thind, a senior majoring in industrial and entrepreneurial engineering, said that this event attracts students from states and countries as far away as Texas, California, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Athletes will take part in team and individual sports such as men's and women's badminton, soccer, basketball, tennis and volleyball.
Midwest Games International 2013 will feature new games such as racquetball, netball and sepak takraw (a sport popular in Southeast Asia) and Picture volleyball (a sport played with a rattan ball).
The events will be organized at the Student Recreation Center, the Goldsworth Valley field, intramural fields and Sorensen tennis courts.
The annual event is typically sponsored by the members of Malaysian student organizations at Midwest universities. And this year's sponsors comprise of WMU, the University's Malaysian Student Association, the Ministry of Higher Education of Malaysia, private Malaysian institutions and other businesses and companies.
Malaysia's ambassador to the U.S.,Datuk Othman Hashim, will inaugurate the games and confer medals at the closing ceremony, May 26, WMU's Miller Auditorium.
Currently, WMU includes more than 60 Malaysian students.
