KOTA KINABALU: Six students and staff from Universiti Malaysia Sabah (UMS) are representing Malaysia in the World Championships of Performing Arts (WCoPA) in Los Angeles, United States of America (USA).

The championship is taking place from July 22 to July 30.

The participants are two students from the Art and Creative Technology Academy (ASTiF), two students from the Psychology and Education Faculty (FPP) and a staff from academy and a UMS administrative staff.

ASTiF music art student, Kristy Samunting will be contesting in the Vocal Broadway singing category, Vocal Pop, Vocal R&B and Open Vocal for ages between 18 and 24 years old.

ASTiF dance art student, Vanessa William will be contesting in the solo dance contemporary category, Dance Open, Dance Lyrical and Dance Ethnic for the age category of 18 to 24 years old.

FPP UMS student, Noor Hasfizzah Ladin, will be contesting in the singing competition of Vocal Pop, Vocal Open, Vocal Variety and Vocal World for the age category of 25-29; while Quenner Mitchell Pauzi, an FPP postgraduate student, will be contesting in the instrumental music category showcasing Sabah’s musical instrument, “Sundatang”.

Quenner has taken part in the event before, bringing a gold, three silver and one bronze medals to Malaysia.

The two UMS staff contesting are ASTiF Creative Art Programme chief, Dr Sharip Zainal Sagkif Shek and UMS Senior Culture Artists, Norain Abd Razak.

They will be taking part in the duet dance event for the age category of 30 years and above.

For the record, the last time UMS took part in the competition was in 2018 where it garnered one gold, seven silver and one bronze medals.