By Jacob Achoi
SERIAN, Sept 17: The Serian Rafting Challenge Festival is back on Sept 28 with 86 registered teams so far to vie various category champion titles.
The 12th edition of the challenge will see participants covering a distance of 25km from Kpg Tema Mawang in Tebedu, until Pekan Tebakang to promote the beauty of Sg Sadong.
Divided into five categories, the event offers RM1,500 for the champion, RM1,200 for the runner-up and RM900 for third placing.
The categories are men open, women open, youth open, mixed gender and tourism agencies
There will also be a best decoration raft prize totalling RM250.
At a press conference at Serian District Council (SDC) to announce the event, Serian MP Dato Sri Richard Riot Jaem said the challenge has been an annual tourism event since 2012.
“There are several interesting activities for this year’s event and I strongly encourage the people to come and see these interesting activities,” Riot said.
Among the activities in the pipeline are the ‘Ratu Belanting’ beauty contest, sports carnival and karaoke singing competition.
“There will also be 60 food and drink stalls to provide the locals with business opportunities,” he added.
Riot thanked Ministry of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts for chipping in RM100,000 to run the event, adding that he service centre also chipped in RM60,000.
Compared to 187 teams at last year’s event, Riot did not dismiss the possibility that more teams will register at the last minute, going by past years’ experiences. — DayakDaily
