KUCHING: A large crowd comprising relatives and friends packed the Kuching International Airport (KIA) on Thursday night to welcome their heroes, the State paralympic athletes who were crowned national paralympiad overall champions in Perlis.
A lion dance performance and Malay traditional ‘kompang’ was also played during the grand welcoming ceremony.
Assistant Sports Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin was among those present.
“Since the game started, Sarawak has been the overall champion. In 2016, when we have the Sukma, we will be the host for the Paralympic games. We did very well in swimming where we won 42 out of 66 golds. Also in athletics, we won 20 golds. Overall we won 165 medals including 55 silvers and 44 bronzes,” said Lee.
He acknowledged that Terengganu were catching up falling by finishing the runners-up to overtake Johor who had always been the main rival of Sarawak.
Lee congratulated the coaches and paralympic athletes for their success, while stressing the Sarawak State Sports Council will do its part to help in their training for the next competition.
“We have to be prepared for 2016 because we are the host, so we have to put in more efforts,” he said, adding that they had to identify more new talents and compete in more categories.
“They also need more special trainers to train these special athletes,” he added.
Lee revealed that this year, the contingents comprising 156 athletes only competed in six events namely athletics, table tennis, powerlifting, swimming, bowling and badminton.
Other games that Sarawak skipped were archery, wheelchair basketball and wheelchair tennis.
Terengganu won 40 golds, 16 silvers and 17 bronzes while Johor’s medals tally of 29-17-10 put them in thrid spot.
Sarawak have been overall champions in every edition of the Malaysia Paralympiad since 1994.
Abdul Haris Ishak was a relieved and happy chef-de-mission when he spoke to The Borneo Post on Wednesday.
“Our athletes did their best and none of them let the state down. We do realise that the other states are catching up hence we need to remind ourselves to never rest on our laurels,” he said.
Deputy chef-de-mission was Hadiah Ramli who also coached for swimming while other coaches were Matthew Chin for athletics, Abitt Nunong for table tennis and badminton, Jamil Adam for powerlifting, and George Frederick Noew for bowling.