The competition, which runs from Sept 3–14, will see over 6,000 athletes and associated team members from 68 schools in Phuket involved, with the athletics competitions already taken place from Aug 29–31.
As an extra incentive the winner of the under-18 category is each sport will go on to represent Phuket in the 45th National Student Games Qualifying Round 8 in Krabi later this year to qualify for the final round of the Buriram Games in February 2026.
With the athletics already concluded, the competition features a total of 16 sports, namely: football; volleyball; basketball; 3x3 basketball; badminton; tennis; table tennis; swimming; beach volleyball; karate; taekwondo; woodball; petanque; futsal; and sepak takraw.
Wednesday’s opening ceremony was held at the 4,000-seat gymnasium at the Saphan Hin Sports Center in Phuket Town, overseen by Thammawat Wongcharoenyos, president of the Sports Association of Phuket, Rewat Areerob, President of the Phuket Provincial Administrative Organisation (PPAO), and Ratchadaporn Oin, head of the Tourism and Sports Ministry office in Phuket.
Ms Oin explained that the tournament strives to encourage students to utilise their free time productively to enhance their physical exercise while developing their sports skills to help them stay away from the many social dangers such as drugs and crime.
Furthermore it provides the opportunity for top performing athletes in their particular field to advance and participate at regional, national and possibly international competition.