HEAVY DUTY: Sarawak assistant chef-de-mission Gerald Rentap Jabu (front, left) posing with winners of the women’s 75kg weightlifting category for clean and jerk category at the Perlis IKBN at Kuala Perlis on Tuesday. Sarawak’s Jelinie Empera and Devonalorinix Galvin won the gold and silver respectively in the event.
The state swimming team contributed the most gold medals (nine) to the Sarawak contingent at the 2014 Sukma.
Grace Wong
Michael Sia
KANGAR: Sarawak ended their campaign in the 17th edition of Sukma in Perlis late Tuesday with a total medal haul of 48 gold, 32 silver and 35 bronze medals to finish third in the national games that commenced from May 24.
This was an improvement compared to two years ago when the state contingent finished fourth with a 42-32-38 medal tally in Pahang.
Kuala Lumpur ended Terengganu’s domination in the Games by capturing 55 gold, 38 silver and 49 bronze medals to finish on top while the later garnered 51 gold, 55 silver and 31 bronze medals to settle for second spot. Finishing in fourth and fifth positions were Selangor and Pahang who won 36-49-71 and 33-27-33 respectively.
The sixth to 14th spots were occupied by Perak, Pulau Pinang, Johor, Sabah, Negeri Sembilan, Melaka, Kedah, Kelantan and Perlis.
Brunei, which competed as an invited team, won only one gold in karate-do.
By gold medal collection, Sarawak’s best performing sport was swimming which contributed nine gold, five silver and three bronze medals, followed by tenpin bowling which yielded six gold, five silver and two bronze medals.
Wushu, which has been a consistent gold medals contributor, also performed up to expectations to deliver five gold, five silver and six bronze medals.
These three teams all finished overall champions in their respective sports at this Sukma.
Sarawak won four gold and three silver medals from taekwondo and tennis contributed four gold, two silver and three bronze medals.
Petanque and archery delivered three golds each while two golds each were won in weightlifting, pencak silat and the surprise package – diving.
Teams contributing one gold each were boxing, squash and lawnbowls while teams coming back empty-handed are canoeing, football, men’s and women’s hockey, golf, sepaktakraw and badminton.
In the 11 days of competition, Sarawak athletes also broke six Sukma records.
Michael Sia Sung Dak won the hammer throw with a distance of 56.98m to break the Sukma record of 55.23m set by fellow Sarawakian and his senior Jackie Wong Siew Cheer in Pahang in 2012.
The other new Sukma record was created by 14-year old Grace Wong Xiu Mei who threw the hammer to 55.82 to eclipse the old record of 50.69m set by Pahang’s Tan Song Hwa in 2008.
In the same event, Sarawak’s Casier Renee Lee also broke the old record with her throw of 54.36m.
Sarawak’s other records were from the men’s team of Welson Sim, Vernon Lee, Alex Tiong and Ngui Jiung Wei who set a new time of 07:47.31s to erase the old time of 07:50.29 in the 4x200m freestyle relay, and weightlifter Jelinie Empara who competed in the women’s 75kg snatch to lift a new record of 85kg.
The old record was 84kg held by Nur Jannah Batrisyah of Johor who created it in 2010 in Melaka.
Jelinie established another record of 107kg in the clean and jerk again breaking the old record of 106kg by Nur Jannah.
For this magnificent feat, Jelinie was adjudged Sukma XVII best woman athlete.