To be staged 17 days after the official closing ceremony of the 29th SEA Games on Aug 30, the ASEAN Para Games (APG) 2017, the third edition to be hosted by Malaysia, will see the participation of more than 2,000 athletes and officials from 11 countries. Scheduled from 17-23 September, Malaysia will host what will be the biggest ASEAN Para Games thus far with a total of 16 sports on the competition roster, the biggest number of sports contested in the history of the Games. Two years ago in Singapore, 15 sports were lined up in the 2015 Games.

The Games will not be short of excitement as some of the region’s Paralympic heroes will be competing for honours.

The region’s Paralympic movement has progressed steadily with many of the region’s para athletes carving their names in last year’s Paralympic Games in Rio. This include home heroes such as shot put star Ziyad Zolkefli, sprinter Ridzuan Puzi and long jumper Abdul Latif Romly who all have achieved historical feats in Rio.

A total of 479 events have been lined up with the highest in Para Athletics (200 events) followed by Para Swimming with 128 events. The sports to be featured in the 7-day Games are archery, athletics, badminton, boccia, chess, para cycling, Football 5-a-side, CP Football, goalball, powerlifting, swimming, tenpin bowling, table tennis, sitting volleyball, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis. Para cycling – track and road – makes its debut in the biennial Games.

Competitions will be held at the existing SEA Games venues at MITEC, KL Sports City as well as other venues outside Klang Valley, including the National Velodrome in Nilai. Some 4,000 volunteers are expected to be involved to help smoothen the organisation of the 2017 ASEAN Para Games./.(kualalumpur2017.com)