Arai Takuji (fourth right) and Kazue Sakai (third right) hand over the judo kits and floor mats to Francis Chan (fourth left) as state MSNS head coach Anderson Venus (right) and others look on.
KUCHING: The Sarawak Judo Association (SJA) plan to set up a training centre in Miri soon to create a bigger pool of talents.
Its president Francis Chan said the move would give the sport in the state the boost it badly needed to attract new players.
Right now, there are fewer than 20 judokas regularly practising at the present training centre along Jalan Pending.
Besides the training centre at Jalan Pending SJA also runs a dojo (training centre) at Chung Hua Middle School No.1 where about 40 students are training.
“To further develop judo in Sarawak, there is a need to set up more training centres, especially in major towns,” he said after receiving a sponsorship of four sets of judo kits and 45 pieces of tatami (floor mats) from the Japan-Malaysia Association on Wednesday night.
The mat and kits were handed over to Chan by Japan-Malaysia Association executive director Arai Takuji and its coordinator in Sarawak, Kazue Sakai.
“This is a very good beginning for us in the new year and we are hoping through assistance from the Japan-Malaysia Association, we can get some Japanese instructors to come and conduct coaching clinics and share their experience and expertise with our young judokas,” Chan said.
He also hoped judo would be listed as one of the events in Sukma 2016 when Sarawak will play host. In this respect, he sees the crucial need to set up another training centre.
“The contribution from Japan-Malaysia Association is timely because the tatami is a pre-requisite for setting up the centre,” he said, adding that the floor mats were a big boost to judo development in Sarawak.
Chan also said the association is confident of getting an instructor in Miri. It is learnt that a set of judo kits can cost about RM200 while a piece of tatami fetches around RM700.
Meanwhile, Arai said the Japan-Malaysia Association was a NGO and every year since 1995, it had been sending volunteers to Sarawak.
“Over the years, we have been conducting the tree-planting project at Gunung Apeng in Serian with the Sarawak Forestry Department, Unimas and the villagers in the area,” he added.
Last August, one of the volunteers, Kawamoto Hiroshi, from Hiroshima who came here happened to be a judo instructor and a junior high school teacher and was interested in finding out more about local judo dojo.
Kawamoto was introduced to Chan through the coordinator Kazue Sakai and the Japanese judo instructor was very impressed with the enthusiasm and learning attitude of the local trainees.
Kawamoto not only gave valuable judo tips to the trainees but also noticed the less than satisfactory condition of the tatami at the Pending training centre. When he returned to Japan, he took the trouble to collect (or buy) second-hand tatami and judo kits and presented them to the centre.
“This is the first time we are sponsoring the equipment and there will be more to come,” Arai assured.
He added that Kawamoto, whose student Hiraoka won a silver medal at the London Olympics in 2012, may come to Kuching again in August to conduct coaching clinics.