OPTIMISTIC: Chef de mission of the Sarawak Paralympiad team Datuk Fatimah Abdullah (standing, second from left), state contingent officials Assistant Welfare Minister Robert Lawson Chuat (second right), State Welfare Department director Noriah Ahmad (left) and Sarawak Youth and Sports Department acting director Razali Mohamad (right) pose for a photo call during the opening ceremony of the 16th Paralympiad Malaysia Games 2012 last Sunday.
KUCHING: Sarawak is all set to capture their 10th championship title at the on-going 16th Paralympics Malaysia Games 2012 hosted by Pahang in Kuantan.
With such an unprecedented feat, Sarawak’s success is the envy of the other states competing at the games. Pahang youth and sports committee chairman Datuk Wan Adnan Wan Mamat commented during the game’s opening ceremony last Sunday, that Pahang should emulate Sarawak in their paralympiad development.
“Sarawak has been champions of the paralympiad games for nine times. They are successful because they have very good facilities and programmes,” said Wan Adnan.
With the need to upgrade their sports facilities, he admitted that the Pahang currently does not have a specialised unit for Paralympics. Pahang must have the initiative and start by providing qualified coaches and facilities which are disabled-friendly.
2,400 athletes and officials are involved in the games this time around. Fifteen contingents will compete in 17 sports, including wheelchair rugby, goalball and wheelchair basketball.
Meanwhile Datuk Fatimah Abdullah who is Sarawak Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development has been given the task as chef-de -mission to the Sarawak Paralympiad Team athletes for the games.
She led the Sarawak contingent comprising 173 athletes and 62 officers who are participating in the six-day sporting event.
Sarawak will compete in nine events namely athletics, swimming, 10 pin bowling, badminton, power lifting, ping pong, petanque, chess and lawn bowl.
Fatimah previously commented that Sarawak needs to focus on the events that yield the most gold medals. There are 1,119 medals contest overall with 373 gold medals up for grabs.
“Due to the format change of the games, we need to focus on the events that can give us more gold medals. This is because this year, the winner of the competition will be based on the contingent that collected the most gold medals,” she said.
The opening ceremony was also attended by the wife of former Prime Minister, Tun Jeanne Abdullah. She is also the Patron of the Malaysian Paralympics Council (MPC).
Before the start of the games, Sarawak athletes had attended a two-week long centralised training camp at Kota Samarahan since Nov 26 as part of their final preparations.
In the previous Paralympiad held in Melaka, Sarawak brought home 68 gold medals, 91 silver medals and 74 bronze to emerge overall champion.