POISE AND PRECISION: The Sarawak rhythmic gymnastics team performing their routine on the last day of the Sukma XV yesterday. — Bernama photo
KUANTAN: Although Sarawak did not achieve its 47-gold medals target at Sukma XV in Pahang, it has already reached the 40-gold target by winning 42 golds in the games that started on July 7.
Sarawak chef de mission Datuk Lee Kim Shin said that by finishing fourth in the 15th edition of Sukma with 42 golds, 32 silvers and 38 bronzes was already an achievement itself.
“When compared to Sukma XIV in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur and Sukma XIII in Melaka where we were in 12th and sixth positions respectively, we have already made an improvement by finishing fourth this Sukma,” Lee told The Borneo Post yesterday.
Apart from Terengganu who won 62 golds, Lee said Sarawak’s gold medal tally was close to that of Selangor and Pahang who also captured more than 40 golds.
“This is a good result considering that we did not take part in all events. We only participated in 259 out of 377 events.
FINE EFFORT: Sarawak’s Sanjay Singh in action against Selangor’s Muhammad Bakhtiar Addeen Idrakie during the Men’s Team squash final at Sukma XV yesterday. Sarawak went on to win the gold medal in the team event. — Bernama photo
“In shooting that offered 26 golds, we only competed in two events while in weightlifting that has 32 golds at stake, our lifters were only down in seven events out of which we won three golds, two silvers and one bronze.”
Apart from emerging overall champions in taekwondo (four golds, two silvers and two bronzes) and wushu (seven golds, seven silvers and three bronzes), Lee said swimming also made a breakthrough by capturing ten golds, four silvers and six bronzes and breaking five meet records to finish second overall behind Selangor.
Lee, also the Assistant Minister of Sports, said it was interesting and encouraging to note that some of our young athletes had performed well during the Games.
“Take for instance, 12-year-old gymnast Esmelda Arecia Menti Alfred Geling won one gold, two silvers and three bronzes, 12-year-old Grace Wong Xiu Mei was the silver medallist in the women’s shot putt while 10-year-old Kimberly Bong finished seventh in 3m platform diving,” he said.
Lee said the state government will be sending the young athletes for exposure as part of the sports development programme.
This was to ensure that they will be ready for the challenge in Sukma 2014 and 2016.
Lee said a thorough post-mortem on the performance of the state athletes would be conducted after receiving the reports from respective sports associations and coaches after Sukma XV.
He also thanked The Borneo Post for the extensive coverage on Sukma XV.