Sarawak target 70 gold to win Paralympiad

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Haris (left) seen during the flag-handing over ceremony in Kuching on Monday. Also seen are athlete Mohd Zambri Yusof (second left) and Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development Datuk Fatimah Abdullah (right).

KUCHING: Sarawak is targeting 70 gold medals in the on-going Malaysia Paralympiad in Perlis.

The state contingent are competing in six sports – athletics, badminton, bowling, petanque, power-lifting and swimming – but are banking on athletics and swimming to deliver most of the medals.

At the last Paralympiad held in Pahang, Sarawak topped the medal standings with 72 gold 62 silver and 54 bronze medals.

Sarawak chef-de-mission Abdul Haris Ishak said this year’s target was two gold less than the tally obtained in 2012.

He revealed that the reason was that this year’s organisers had decided to limit the number of sports.

“One of the sports, which is our favourite but not contested this year, is ten-pin bowling. We could have won a few gold medals from that event,” he commented.

Sarawak is represented by 124 athletes and 41 officials at this year’s Malaysia Paralympiad from Aug 20-25.

The state contingent arrived in Perlis last Tuesday.

The athletes are aiming to bring home Sarawak’s 11th consecutive overall title from the national meet held since 1994.