KUCHING: The Sarawak contingent are all fired up and set to mount a serious challenge at the Malaysia Games XVII (Sukma) in Perlis starting today until June 4.
Represented by 362 athletes accompanied by 158 officials, Sarawak will compete in 22 out of 24 sports and go all out to capture a fair share of the 310 gold medals out of the 396 on offer.
The state contingent are skipping equestrian and optimist sailing for these 2014 games.
“The athletes are all raring to go after so many months of preparation and anticipation,” said chef de mission Datuk Lee Kim Shin yesterday.
Lee, also the Assistant Minister of Sports and Communications, said the preparation was completed with the contingent camp that ended at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak yesterday.
“Yes, we are now ready for the tough challenge ahead and some of the athletes are already in Perlis.
“Some of them especially the football and pencak silat squads had left and others are joining the state contingent in Perlis from Bukit Jalil while the foreign-based athletes will be travelling straight to Perlis,” he said.
The target for Sarawak is 55 golds in order to finish among the top five teams and Lee is confident that it is achievable.
“Based on the feedback from our coaches and sports associations’ officials, we are predicting a 55-gold medal haul and anything beyond that will be a big bonus,” he added.
Lee said Sarawak will especially be banking on sports such as athletics, swimming, tenpin bowling, wushu, tennis, weightlifting, cycling and archery to deliver the goods.
“I am also expecting the other sports to spring a few surprises.”
His main concern will be the judging in the subjective sports like wushu, silat, karate and taekwondo as judging in these martial arts sports can be controversial.
“Through our past experience, it is really hard for us to predict how well we can perform in those sports,” he said.
With the majority of the athletes being new faces, Lee continued, Sukma XVII will serve as a prelude to Sukma 2016 which Sarawak will play host.
“Perlis Sukma is also a very good platform for us to gain experience and I believe that, by 2016, the majority of the athletes will be matured and experienced to pose a strong challenge for the overall championship.”
Sarawak’s first medals are expected to come from pencak silat which commences today at the Perlis Sports Complex’s Hall Sports Partnership and the football competition will also kick off today at UiTM Perlis, Arau Repository, Pauh.
The sports starting tomorrow are cycling, men’s and women’s hockey, squash, canoeing and karate, followed by lawn bowls and tenpin bowling on Sunday and badminton, boxing, weightlifting, sepak takraw and tennis next Tuesday.
At Sukma XV in Pahang two years ago, Sarawak captured 42 gold, 32 silver and 38 bronze medals to finish in fourth position overall after Terengganu, Selangor and Pahang.