Gana PrakashAs 2019 comes to an end we celebrate Malaysians from all walks of life, both young and old, who have made the nation proud by becoming the best in the world in they’re respective fields.
1. Malaysian chefs win prestigious World Pastry Cup in France
Team Malaysia was crowned champions at the 2019 Coupe du Monde de la Pâtisserie (also known as the World Pastry Cup) beating 63 contestants from 21 countries.
The team was required to make 100% vegan dessert as this year’s theme was ‘Nature, Flora and Fauna’
2. Seven-year-old ice skater goes on gold medal spree
Young Malaysian ice skater C. Sree Abiraame got her name into Malaysia Book of Records (MBOR) for being the youngest athlete to win the most medals in the same sport this year.
She bagged five gold medals at the 4th ISI International Figure Skating tournament held at Zayed Sports City in Abu Dhabi back in February. She then won another 5 gold and a silver medal at the 14th ISI Asia Skate Beijing 2019 championship in China.
She made a clean sweep of all the Under-8 age group events she took part in. Sree has been involved in figure skating since she was three years old and has amassed over 40 medals.
3. Malaysia ranks 1st in world’s best healthcare category
Malaysia scored 95 out of 100 and was ranked first in the Best Healthcare in the World category of the 2019 International Living Annual Global Retirement Index. Malaysia ranked first for its world-class healthcare services and sophisticated infrastructure.
4. Madhuri ranked world number one in karate
P. Madhuri emerged as the second Malaysian to be ranked world number one in May this year in the Under-21 category. The 20-year-old also won Malaysia’s second karate gold in the SEA Games this year.
5. Saiful Hakimi awarded The Engineering Honor Marshal
Muhamad Saiful Hakimi Daud had made history as the first-ever Malaysian to receive the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences’ Engineering Honor Marshal award at the Pennsylvania State University in the United States.
The 24-year-old undergraduate in petroleum and natural gas engineering was bestowed the prize after scoring a perfect cumulative GPA of 4.0. Saiful Hakimi received the award at the Pegula Ice Arena in Pennsylvania State University in front of hundreds of people, including his parents, Daud Ahmad and Jamaliah Kasim, who came all the way from Sungai Petani, Kedah, to witness the proud moment.
6. 12yo M’sian student becomes the youngest winner at World Robotics Championship
12-year-old Malaysian student, Danish Irfan Muslim became the youngest winner at the World Robotics Championship 2019 held in New Delhi, India. The Standard 6 student from SK Tun Hussein Onn in Kuala Lumpur teamed up with his father, Muslim Tamsir to beat 30 other teams comprising students from secondary schools, colleges and universities.
Danish won the Water Rocket Challenge by displaying great skills in building and launching water rockets using two-litre soft drink bottles. This is his first international contest after previously winning water rocket championships in 2018 and 2019 in Malaysia.
7. Malaysian wins ‘Nobel Prize for Cancer Research’
UK-based Malaysian scientist Dr Serena Nik-Zainal has been honoured with the Dr Josef Steiner Cancer Research Prize 2019 at the University of Bern in Switzerland . The award also known as the “Nobel Prize for Cancer Research” was given for her breakthrough research in accelerating the holistic interpretation of the cancer genome.
According to her research, mutations in cancer tumours can be analysed using new bioinformatic methods which enable new approaches to target therapies.
8. Malaysian barista wins 2019 World Latte Art Battle
Malaysian barista, Irvine Quek Siew Lhek won another international latte art championship when he won the 2019 World Latte Art Battle (WLAB) organised by World Coffee Battle in Seoul, South Korea. Quek previously won the 2018 World latte Art Championship (WLAC) organised by World Coffee Events in Brazil.
9. Sabahan kids win Gold Medal at the Dance World Cup 2019
Three primary school children from SK Stella Maris in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah won a gold medal for their ‘Nambuyunan’ performance at an international dance competition held in Portugal. The trio, which is made up of 10-year-old Ahmad Mikhail Damsal and 12-year-olds Muhammad Fakhrul Afif and Oscar Neil, cinched a gold medal under the ‘Children Duet/Trio National and Folklore Dance’ category.
They were not the only one’s as 12-year-old Mohd Fakhrul Afif, also from SK Stella Maris, came out top in the ‘Solo Children National Folklore’ category for his Brunei ethnic dance, ‘Ag Alak Betatar’.
A group from SK Mutiara Kota Kinabalu also won a gold medal in the ‘Children Small Group National Folklore Dance’ category for their performance.
10. Penang students win international award for invention made from food waste
Four students from SJK(T) Ladang Prye won an international gold medal at the International Science and Invention Fair in Bali, Indonesia. Harrish Raj Shanker, Harchana Changaiah, Siti Zumaidah Abdul Rahman, and Theva Tharsini Seekan won for their ingenious invention of repurposing orange peels and coconut shells into water filters, teeth whiteners, and odour remover sachets. The project revolves around reducing environmental waste and practising “3R”, which is “reduce, reuse, and recycle.
11. 5 students beat 100 countries to win top award in european exhibition
The students from SMK Panji Alam, Terengganu recently nabbed four awards at the 11th European Exhibition of Creativity and Innovation (Euroinvent 2019) held at the Palace of Culture in Romania. The team consisting of five Form 5 students beat 635 teams from 100 countries in the ordinary school category.
They managed to win the ‘Special Prize Award Euroinvent’, which is also the highest honour at Euroinvent. The other three awards include the ‘Gold Medal Award Euroinvent’, ‘Special Award Corneliu Group Romania’, and ‘Special Honour of Toronto Invention Society Canada’.
The team’s invention is a product to treat water that is made entirely out of natural materials. Called ‘Pads Clay For Dyes Treatment Water Treatment’ (Pads-Clay). The disc which is made out of straw and clay is used to treat water that has been polluted by using dyes.
12. PJ Student named ‘Top in the world’ for IGCSE Maths and Add Maths
17-year-old Andrew Nge Jing Shuen from Petaling Jaya, Selangor emerged as the world’s top scorer in two International General Certificate of Secondary Education for Mathemathics (IGCSE) subjects.
The ex-student of Beaconhouse Sri Inai International School, Petaling Jaya, was awarded the prestigious ‘Top In The World’ award at the Outstanding Cambridge Learner Awards.
Nge had scored the highest standard mark in the world for IGCSE Mathematics and Additional Mathematics examinations. It is estimated that over a million students from 50 countries sit for IGCSE papers every year.
13. Penang students to have asteroids named after them for winning chemistry award
16-year-old students Melwin Cheng Choon Lei and Tham Yong Shiang from SMJK Chung Ling emerged champions in the Chemistry category of Intel International Science and Engineering (ISEF) Fair 2019. It was for their cost-friendly and eco-friendly Aedes mosquito larvicide. They will have their legacies extend into the final frontier by having asteroids named after them. The naming process will take over a year and have to go through procedures set by the International Astronomical Union
14. Suresh Selvathamby wins Para World Title at World Championships
Suresh Selvathamby of Malaysia beat USA’s Eric Bennett in five sets to become the new world champion in the recurve men’s open category at the 2019 World Archery Para Championships in Netherlands.
15. Malaysia’s Sri Dasmesh Sikh pipe band win big at world meet
The Sri Dasmesh Sikh pipe band emerged champions of Grade 4B at the World Pipe Band Championship in Scotland. The band also emerged tops in the drumming and best parade categories. Up to 8,000 pipers and drummers from 195 bands over 13 countries had converged at the event in Glasgow Green.
16. Author Zen Cho bags Hugo sci-fi award for best novelette
Malaysian-born author Zen Cho has won the prestigious Hugo award, arguably the premier prize for the best work in science fiction. The novelette titled If at First You Don’t Succeed, Try, Try Again, was published at the B&N Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog on November last year. She received the award at a ceremony during the 77th World Science Fiction Convention (Worldcon) in Dublin, Ireland, on August 18.
The novelette tells a story of an Imugi (a lesser dragon) who goes on a journey to attain the form of a full-fledged dragon and gain entry to the gates of heaven. Along the way, the Imugi meets a girl who accompanies the lesser dragon on its journey.
17. UTAR wins at Global ‘Internet of Things’ competition in New York
A team of students from Universiti Tunku Abdul Rahman (UTAR), Malaysia, has emerged winners at the Keysight Internet of Things (IoT) Innovation Challenge grand finals held in New York on Sept 22. They were crowned champions under the Smart Water category and received a prize of US$25,000 (RM105,000) in cash and US$25,000 worth of select Keysight Technologies test equipment.
The UTAR team, which comprised Lim Wen Qing, Yap Sheng Yao, Tan Kai Siang, Au Jin Cheng and Khor Jun Bin, emerged the winner out of nearly 300 participating teams from around the world and were ranked at the top alongside leading universities like Stanford University and Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
The group won with their project entitled IoT Detachable Waterway Monitoring Device with LoRa and Self-Sustainability. The team was inspired to design the water monitoring system to prevent gas leak disasters such as the incident in Johor which occurred in March 2019, where more than 2,500 people fell ill from gas poisoning as a result of illegal dumping of chemical waste in a river.
18. Kamal Chopra wins Best International Artist at the UK Bhangra Awards
Malaysian singer Kamal Chopra, 55, won the Best International Artist at the UK Bhangra Awards 2019, held in Birmingham, United Kingdom. The Penangite was chosen by a panel of judges based on work done, performances and endorsements of the Punjabi culture over the course of a year.
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