Dedia Sarini Ahmad
KUCHING: The Sarawak artistic gymnastic squad is confident that they will contribute at least a medal at Sukma XV this coming July.
The team returned to the state on Sunday after their successful training stint and exposure trip in Jakarta. They were there since June 12.
Sarawak State Sports Council (MSNS) gymnastics co-ordinator Dedia Sarini Ahmad told The Borneo Post yesterday that the objective of sending the artistic gymnastic squad to Indonesia was to prepare them for Sukma XV.
“The training was meant to motivate the young aspiring gymnasts, especially the girls as this is our debut in Sukma.
“Since we have only one training centre for artistic gymnastic in Sarawak, we decided to go to the renowned Raden Inten training centre in Jakarta to train. The centre was chosen as it had better facilities,” informed Dedia.
“We have limited facilities here in Malaysia especially in the artistic events. We also have limited number of tournaments here hence our decision to go abroad,” she added.
Dedia pointed out that other state too had their gymnast trained overseas with some to places as far as China. She was in no illusion that Sarawak will gain more experience if they went abroad for exposure.
She too revealed that the trip was also aimed to encourage the state gymnasts to be more confident and ready to compete with other participants who are more experienced than them.
“This way, the state gymnasts will not suffer any inferiority complex or anxiety during the competition,” said Dedia.
Sarawak will be sending six gymnasts which are all girls between 12 to 14-years-old to Sukma XV as they aim for a golden debut.