Future of state’s sports in good hands — Lee

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Kimberly Bong (left) and Tracia Irene Erik posing with their silver medals won from the women’s synchronised platform event.

KUCHING: Assistant Sports Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin is very impressed with the performances of the young athletes in the Sarawak contingent and it augurs well for Sukma 2016 and many other Sukma to come.

Lee, who is also the chef de mission of the Sarawak contingent for Sukma XVII, singled out young divers Tracia Irene Erik and Kimberly Bong Qian Ping for praise as they had bagged the women’s synchronised platform silver medal.

“Tracia is only 10 while Kimberly is 12 and I think they have put on an excellent performance to win the silver medal and beating older opponents in the event,” he said.

Lee believed that in two years time when Sarawak hosts Sukma XIX, the duo will again pose a strong challenge for the gold.

Another young athlete worth noting is 14-year old Grace Wong Xiu Mei from SM Tinggi Sarikei who blew away the other eight rivals including teammate Casier Renee Lee who were all much older than her in the women’s hammer throw competition.

Grace won the gold with a record throw of 55.82m to erase the old record of 50.69m held by Tan Song Hwa of Pahang at Terengganu Sukma in 2008.

Tan also holds the national record of 58.71m which she created in an international athletics competition in Hungary in 2011.

Lee was also impressed with the commitment, determination, strong fighting spirit and high discipline displayed by the state athletes in Perlis.

“In the tenpin bowling competition, we have broken a record as the bowlers (men’s team of five) had competed in the morning until 5:30am the next day. They had to bowl again at 9am until 11pm. That’s a marathon competition,” said Lee who cited insufficient lanes for the packed schedule.

“The fighting spirit and high discipline shown by our bowlers is the kind of spirit that we want to see in our athletes and all athletes should show that kind of commitment and fighting spirit to win honours for Sarawak,” he said.

Meanwhile, Lee urged all sports associations to start preparing for Sukma 2016 where Sarawak are targeting to be the overall champions.

“It is very important that after Sukma XVII, we must not stop our training programmes but instead continue the training of our athletes until 2016,” he added.

He wants all the sports associations involved in Sukma XVII to evaluate their performance and also draw up their plans for 2016.