The 2009 ASEAN Para Games, officially known as the 5th ASEAN Para Games, was a Southeast Asian disabled multi-sport event held in

Kuala Lumpur , anthem = ''Maju dan Sejahtera'' , image_map = , map_caption = , pushpin_map = Malaysia#Southeast Asia#Asia , pushpin_map_caption = , coordinates = , sub ...

Malaysia Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federation, federal constitutional monarchy consists of States and federal territories of Malaysia, thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two r ...

from 15 to 19 August 2009. This was the second time Malaysia hosted the

ASEAN Para Games The ASEAN Para Games is a biennial multi-sport event held after every Southeast Asian Games involving disabled athletes from the current 11 Southeast Asia countries. Participating athletes have a variety of disabilities ranging from spastic, ...

and its first time since

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanistan ...

. Around 980 athletes participated at the Games, which featured 409 events in 11 sports. The games was opened by Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, the Former Prime Minister of Malaysia at the Putra Indoor Stadium. The final medal tally was led by Thailand, followed by host Malaysia and Vietnam. Several Games and National records were broken during the games. The games were deemed generally successful with the effective cost spent to host the games and arrangement of public transport, commitment in environment conservation and with the rising standard of disabled sports competition amongst the Southeast Asian nations.

Host city

The 5th ASEAN Para Games was originally scheduled for Laos in January 2010, but Laos begged off from hosting the games due to financial constraints and inexperience in providing disability-accessible venue adaptations for disabled athletes. Hence, the 5th ASEAN Para Games was instead held five months ahead of the Laos

2009 Southeast Asian Games ) , Nations participating = 11 , Athletes participating = 3100 , Events = 372 in 25 sports , Opening ceremony = 9 December 2009 , Closing ceremony = 18 December 2009 , Officially opened by = Choummaly Sayason ...

in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 15 to 19 August 2009, featuring 409 events in 11 sports.

Development and preparation

The Kuala Lumpur Asean Para Games Organising Committee (KLAPGOC) was formed to oversee the staging of the event.

Venues

The 5th ASEAN Para Games had 11 venues for the games. 9 in Kuala Lumpur and 1 each in Selangor and Negeri Sembilan respectively.

Public transport

Shuttle bus services,

Rapid KL Buses Rapid Bus Sdn Bhd is the largest bus operator in Malaysia operating mainly in urban areas of Klang Valley, Penang & Kuantan. As of August 2022, Rapid KL service brands unit of Rapid Bus, has operates 112 normal routes and also 69 MRT Feede ...

were provided throughout the games and were used to ferry athletes and officials to and from the airport, games venues and games village.

Sustainability

Committed in conserving the environment, the games organiser gave each medal winner of the Games an opportunity to plant a tree at the Paralympic Park.

Marketing

Logo

The logo of the 2009 ASEAN Para Games is an image of a heart shape surrounded by ten doves which represents the ten ASEAN nations. The initial KL in the logo represents Kuala Lumpur, the capital of Malaysia as the host of the games, the number ’09 represents the year 2009, the heart shape in the ‘0’ represents the loving, caring and hospitality of Malaysian people, while the brush stroke sphere represents the unity of the ASEAN Community. The Games logo is mostly rehashed from the

2006 FESPIC Games The 2006 FESPIC Games, officially known as the 9th and Final FESPIC Games, was an Asia-Pacific disabled multi-sport event held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from 25 November to 1 December 2006. This was the first and last time Malaysia hosted the ...

logo, and due to Malaysian athletes excellent performance at the 2006 FESPIC Games, the rehash of the 2006 FESPIC Games logo as the 2009 edition games logo is meant to reflect Malaysia's intention to replicate its 2006 FESPIC Games success at the 2009 ASEAN Para Games.

Mascot

The mascot of the 2009 ASEAN Para Games is a mousedeer named, "Ujang". The mousedeer is a native animal in Malaysia locally known as pelanduk or kancil which is shy, but very agile and quick thinking. It is a favourite character in local folktales commonly known as "Sang Kancil", noted for its intelligence, wit, cunning feints and quick reaction to escape from all kinds of danger, especially from its enemies. The adoption of mousedeer as the games mascot is to represent the courage of the Paralympic athletes in overcoming challenges and the odds. The name of the mascot, Ujang is a common nickname for local Malay youths.

The games

Opening ceremony

The opening ceremony was held on Thursday, 15 August 2009, beginning at 20:00 MST (UTC+8) at the

Putra Indoor Stadium Putra Indoor Stadium (Malay: ''Stadium Putra''), currently named as Axiata Arena for sponsorship reasons, is a multi-purpose indoor arena in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Background The stadium is located in the premise of the National Sports Comp ...

in Kuala Lumpur. The opening ceremony begins with the cultural performances by a troupe from Kuala Lumpur City Hall followed by a march past by the 10 contingents taking part in the games. After all the contingents took their respective places, former prime minister of Malaysia

Abdullah Ahmad Badawi Tun Abdullah bin Ahmad Badawi ( Jawi: عبد الله بن احمد بدوي; born 26 November 1939) is a Malaysian politician who served as the 5th Prime Minister of Malaysia from October 2003 to April 2009. He was also the sixth president of ...

was given the honour to declare the meet open. This was followed by six Malaysian national paralympians, Abdullah Daud (swimming), Mohd Noor Isa (badminton), Norisah Bahrom (wheelchair tennis), Mohd Fazli Fauzil (athletics), Julius Jeranding (swimming) and Muira Mukri (chess) bringing in the Games flag before being presented to six Royal Malaysian Navy personnel to be hoisted. National paralympian Lee Seng Chow, a track and field athlete, then lead the gathered paralympians in taking the athletes' oath. This was followed by four national paralympians - Nadrul Shakir Nor Zainal (swimming), Marriappan Perumal (powerlifting), Siow Lee Chan (powerlifting) and Mohd Riduan Emeari (athletics) ushering in the Games torch before the cauldron was lit. Finally, a 120-strong gymnastics group from Soka Gakkai entertained the spectators to a gymnastic performance reflecting the spirit of unity, courage and harmony.

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony was held on Monday, 19 August 2009, beginning at 20:00 MST (UTC+8) at the

in Kuala Lumpur. The closing ceremony begins with a series of song performance by local Malay singers. After the performance, the best sportsman and best sportswoman trophy were awarded to a swimming sportsman from Thailand and a swimming sportswoman from Vietnam respectively. This was followed by a speech from Dato' Zainal Abu Zarin, the president of the ASEAN Para Sports Federation. Representatives from Malaysia Book of Records then awarded certificate to the games committee to recognise the games as a smoking-free games. After that,

Ahmad Shabery Cheek Ahmad Shabery bin Cheek ( Jawi: ; born 10 December 1958) is a Malaysian politician. He was the Minister of Agriculture and Agro-based Industry in the Barisan Nasional (BN) coalition government (2015-2018), and sat in Parliament as the member f ...

, then Malaysian Minister of Youth and Sports gave his speech and officially declared the games closed. The flag of the ASEAN Para Sports Federation was lowered by the six Royal Malaysian Navy personnel and the cauldron was extinguished. The ASEAN Para Games responsibilities was officially handed over to Indonesia, host of the

2011 ASEAN Para Games The 2011 ASEAN Para Games, officially known as 6th ASEAN Para Games, was a Southeast Asian disabled multi-sport event held in Surakarta, Central Java three weeks after the 2011 Southeast Asian Games from 15 to 20 December 2011. Around 870 athl ...

, where the Indonesia ambassador received the flag of the ASEAN Para Sports Federation as its symbolisation. The troupe from Kuala Lumpur City Hall, the same troupe who performed at the opening ceremony before, concluded the ceremony with a cultural performance.

Participating nations

* (30) * (11) * (99) * (24) * (258) * (36) * (60) * (98) * (203) * (116) ;Did not enter *

East Timor East Timor (), also known as Timor-Leste (), officially the Democratic Republic of Timor-Leste, is an island country in Southeast Asia. It comprises the eastern half of the island of Timor, the exclave of Oecusse on the island's north-we ...

was absent from the games due to financial constraint.

Sports

Athletics Athletics may refer to: Sports * Sport of athletics, a collection of sporting events that involve competitive running, jumping, throwing, and walking ** Track and field, a sub-category of the above sport * Athletics (physical culture), competiti ...

Powerlifting Powerlifting is a strength sport that consists of three attempts at maximal weight on three lifts: squat, bench press, and deadlift. As in the sport of Olympic weightlifting, it involves the athlete attempting a maximal weight single-lift eff ...

Chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to dist ...

Sailing Sailing employs the wind—acting on sails, wingsails or kites—to propel a craft on the surface of the ''water'' ( sailing ship, sailboat, raft, windsurfer, or kitesurfer), on ''ice'' ( iceboat) or on ''land'' ( land yacht) over a chose ...

Swimming Swimming is the self-propulsion of a person through water, or other liquid, usually for recreation, sport, exercise, or survival. Locomotion is achieved through coordinated movement of the limbs and the body to achieve hydrodynamic thrust that r ...

Badminton Badminton is a racquet sport played using racket (sports equipment), racquets to hit a shuttlecock across a net (device), net. Although it may be played with larger teams, the most common forms of the game are "singles" (with one player per s ...

Bowling Bowling is a target sport and recreational activity in which a player rolls a ball toward pins (in pin bowling) or another target (in target bowling). The term ''bowling'' usually refers to pin bowling (most commonly ten-pin bowling), thoug ...

Sitting volleyball pictogram (Paralympics)

Sitting Volleyball Sitting volleyball is a form of volleyball for athletes with a disability. As opposed to standing volleyball, sitting volleyball players must have at least one buttock in contact with the floor during the game. History Sitting volleyball was inv ...

Table tennis Table tennis, also known as ping-pong and whiff-whaff, is a sport in which two or four players hit a lightweight ball, also known as the ping-pong ball, back and forth across a table using small solid rackets. It takes place on a hard table div ...

Wheelchair basketball pictogram (Paralympics)

Wheelchair basketball Wheelchair basketball is basketball played by people with varying physical disabilities that disqualify them from playing a non-disabled sport. These include spina bifida, birth defects, cerebral palsy, paralysis due to accident, amputations (o ...

Wheelchair tennis pictogram (Paralympics)

Wheelchair tennis Wheelchair tennis is one of the forms of tennis adapted for wheelchair users. The size of the court, net height and rackets are the same, but there are two major differences from pedestrian tennis: athletes use specially designed wheelchairs, ...

Medal table

A total of 936 medals comprising 409 gold medals, 288 silver medals and 239 bronze medals were awarded to athletes. The Host Malaysia's performance was their second best in ASEAN Para Games History and was second behind Thailand as overall champion. ;Key

References

External links

2009 ASEAN Para Games official website

{{ASEAN Para Games ASEAN ParaGames ASEAN Para Games 2009 in Asian sport 2009 in Malaysian sport Multi-sport events in Malaysia Sport in Kuala Lumpur International sports competitions hosted by Malaysia