Database to keep tabs on athletes

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KUCHING: The Sarawak State Sports Council (MSNS) has issued a template to local sport associations to gather information for the database of their athletes.

The information will include the profile of athletes and competition schedules of the associations as well as the breakdown of several age groups of athletes.

“Besides the template, we have added an extra questionnaire to obtain feedback on the capacity, capability, strengths and weaknesses of their development programmes,” MSNS director Francis Nyurang Ding said.

He confirmed the council had received seven of the 30 forms (templates) distributed.

Francis also said MSNS had mapped out 16 strategies to help the associations prepare for future Sukma.

He believed the database would be instrumental in picking the right talents for the various sports events once the Sarawak Sports Corporation clicked into gear by next year.

The template, mooted at the two-day analysis workshop after the Melaka Sukma on August 29, gives a clearer picture of the shortfalls of sports in Sarawak.

Spearheading the task for a thorough study on the state of local sports are facilitators from UiTM Sarawak, led by the campus director, Dr Jamil Hemali, head of Corporate Communication and International Relations, Dr Firdaus Abdullah, and head of Sports Unit, Shafiq Abdullah.

The database must have the athletes’ age, location, whether they are schooling or working and contact information, according to Soedirman Aini, permanent secretary to the Social Development and Urbanisation Ministry.

“The facilitators will compile and summarise the strategies and present them to the council.”

Besides the database, Soedirman stressed the importance of “talent identification” to be implemented by the associations, especially at the grassroots level.

“They must also take the initiative to broaden their athletes’ base by going to schools to scout for talents.”

He urged the sports associations to identify the “emerging talents” and keep tabs on them through the database for easy reference when selecting them for development programmes.

“We don’t want these potential athletes to disappear as soon as they finish schooling,” he said.