KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 — Malaysian Body Building Federation (MBBF) vice-president Kamaruzaman Kadir has died at the age of 76.

MBBF honorary secretary Syed Fairus Syed Ali said Kamaruzaman died at his house in Sri Kembangan, Selangor at about 9am yesterday and was buried in Chemor, Perak at 5.30pm the same day.

According to him, Kamaruzaman had been a dialysis patient since 2011.

Syed Fairus said Kamaruzaman’s passing was a great loss to the local sports fraternity, especially bodybuilding and powerlifting as he was also the Malaysian Para Powerlifting Association.

In a separate statement, the World Para Powerlifting (WPP) also expressed grief over the death of Kamaruzaman, who was chairperson of the WPP Sport Technical Committee (STC).

"He took part in almost all major para powerlifting events in this century from the Paralympic Games to World Championships and regional events such as the Commonwealth Games,” it said.

WPP said Kamaruzaman was also among the founding members of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) Para Games and was directly involved in the first Asian Para Games, supporting the National Paralympic Committee (NPC) of Malaysia.

Asean Para Sports Federation (APSF) president Osoth Bhavilai also said in a statement that the death of Kamaruzaman was a great loss to APSF and the sport of para powerlifting. — Bernama