Stay focus on sports development — Mawan
Posted on July 21, 2012, Saturday
WELL DONE: Mawan (third right) congratulates young gymnast Esmelda Arecia Menti Alfred Geling as she receives her incentives while Lee (second right) and others look on during the incentives presentation ceremony. — Photos by Chimon Upon
KUCHING: Sarawak should be focused in its sports development to regain its past glory.
Minister of Social Development Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom said to achieve this aim, the state government would continue to carry out a professional and systematic sports development programme that are on par with other states in the country.
“We need to draw up new strategies which are more systematic in our approach and efforts to develop sports in the state,” said Mawan who was representing the Chief Minister Pehin Sri Abdul Taib Mahmud at Sukma XV incentives presentation cum dinner recently.
He added Sarawak athletes should start training and prepare themselves for future challenges from now onwards and jointly strive to win the elusive overall champion’s title in 2016 when Sarawak becomes host.
“Apart from that, we need to conduct post-mortem on the teams which failed to deliver so that we can identify the weaknesses and overcome them,” he said.
“We are giving out the incentives as promised to the athletes as a reward for their efforts and also as an encouragement and inspiration for the athletes to do well in their respective sports.”
Mawan commended sporting bodies and especially those who had voluntarily dug money from their own pockets to prepare the teams.
He also thanked all parties who have contributed in one way or another for the state contingent’s success in Sukma XV.
Earlier, Chef de mission Datuk Lee Kim Shin said the athletes deserved the incentives as they had all worked and trained very hard to put their best to win medals for Sarawak.
He said the state government would not waste any time in preparing for Sukma 2013 in Kuala Lumpur and Sukma 2014 in Perlis respectively.
“Let’s start working immediately after this to prepare our team for the next two Sukma. We will also set up a Sukma committee soon to look into the preparations.”
“We have broken a record of sorts by doing our post-mortem three days after Sukma…we also broke another record by paying out the incentives that we promised to the athletes tonight,” he said.
A total of RM426,750 in incentives including RM346,000 for gold medals were paid out to the athletes on Thursday night while athletes from southern Sarawak including Miri, Bintulu, Limbang and Lawas received their incentives last night in Miri.
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