Sarawak gymnasts posing with their trophy and medals at the Hong Kong Invitational Rhythmic Gymnastics Championships in December last year.
The state team of (from left) Joanne Wong Tze Ling, Joannia Teo Yee Tze, Joan Chai Rou Yan, Aldeena Amanda Chia Siew En and Alicia Lee Yan Ting psoing with an older age group gold medallists from Kazakhstan at the Pesta Gimnastick Kuala Lumpur.
Shaleen Tay with speakers Hardy Fink of Canada and Nadya Aleksandrova of Bulgaria at the recent International Gymnastics Federation Age Group Programme in Singapore.
Shaleen Tay speaks to a pupil of SRK Song Kheng Hai during a talent identification programme in February this year.
Helena Christine Wee
KUCHING: The rhythmic gymnastics development programme of the Sarawak Amateur Gymnastics Association (Sagma) is back on track with more youngsters taking up the sport.
Sagma president Helena Christine Wee said the current number of gymnasts in the development and training programme aged between four and 18 has reached 80.
“The Sagma pro-tem committee was set up in 1989 and we started with our with rhythmic gymnastics first and as there was no training equipment for artistic gymnastics it was only introduced in 2007 when we acquired the service of Bulgarian coach.”
“We engaged a China coach Tang Shi Min for rhythmic gymnastics in 2002 and that was the year when Shaleen Tay won a silver medal in Sukma Sabah for the Sarawak contingent,” said Wee.
When the China coach left in 2011, the rhythmic gymnastics development programme stopped for four years until Sagma managed to get Shaleen Tay to help get the sport back on its feet last year.
“We have requested the National Sports Council to get us a foreign coach and we need foreign expertise to train our young gymnasts so that they can compete with their counterparts from Selangor and Kuala Lumpur who are trained by Russian coaches,” said Wee.
As the present group of gymnasts are quite young, Wee said Sagma is building up an elite team for the challenge in Sukma 2018.
“We are setting up a mini committee to get an experienced coach from Japan to conduct a one to two-week course for about 20 gymnasts and at the same time get her to share her experience, knowledge and expertise with local coaches,” said Wee.
She said plans are also in the pipeline to conduct judging and coaching courses for local former gymnasts in the efforts to produce more officials and coaches.
“I really appreciate the contribution by Shaleen and other former gymnasts to help coach the youngsters and I would like to extend my heartfelt thanks to the strong support from the parents and generous sponsors,” she added.
Wee said as the association had limited funds, the parents had to pay for the expenses in sending their children to compete in competitions outside the state.
She also thanked the Ministry of Social Development, Sarawak State Sports Council (MSNS), Sarawak High Performance Sports Unit and the Sarawak Education Department for their assistance.
Meanwhile, talking on the revival of rhythmic gymnastics in Kuching, Shaleen, who is MSNS centre of excellence for rhythmic gymnastics coach, said when she started the training lessons, there were only 10 trainees.
“We conduct two intakes of gymnasts every year by going around the schools to scout for talents and this year we had 25 trainees for our new intake in March,” she said.
According to her, the best will be roped into the elite squad where they will undergo comprehensive training programme to prepare themselves for national and international competitions.
“Our present group of 20 elite gymnasts is quite young, with the oldest at 12 years old,” said Shaleen who is assisted by Low Fai Jun and former gymnasts Joan Chong, Bong Huei Jia, Lim Yi Jun, Fiona Lee and Chang Tung Lam.
Shaleen said the training programme started with individual exercise discipline in 2012 and it was only last year that they expanded into group exercise discipline (team of five members).
“We have plans to have two teams for the group exercise discipline,” she added.
Shaleen said the hard work and efforts put into developing the state gymnasts are now paying dividends as they have been winning medals at national and international meets since last year.
Sarawak were the silver medallists in the group exercise at Pesta Gimnastik Kuala Lumpur and the team bronze medallists at the national SPTS (Sukan Pretasi Tinggi Sekolah) championship in 2013 and 2014.
They finished fourth in the Grade 1 team and fifth in the Grade 2 team competitions at Circuit Remaja 1 (Perlis).
In the Hong Kong Invitational Championship, the Sarawak team won five silver and eight bronze medals.
The silvers were won by Alaena Lao in the rope, hoop and individual all-around and Zara Rose He in the hoop and individual all-around.
Zara also walked away with the “Best Smile” award in her age group.
Sarawak’s bronze medals came from Jeslyn Ng Xi Jie in the hoop, Sarah Ng Xi Yan (ball, ribbon
and individual all-around), Zara in the freehand and Cheryl Ng Xi Rou (rope, hoop and individual all-around).
In another development, Sagma are organising the “The Sailor’s Gymnastics Gala” at MBKS Auditorium today at 2pm.
The event, which is the first of its kind, will feature an one-hour performance on artistic and rhythmic gymnastics.
Eighty gymnasts aged four to 16 from various primary and secondary schools in Kuching will be involved in the show which is one of Sagma’s activities to promote the awareness of
the sport.
Other objectives are to attract public interest and to let them know more about gymnastics as well as attracting young boys and girls to take up gymnastics.
Wee said Minister of Welfare, Women and Family Development as well as Sarawak Amateur Gymnastics Association patron Datuk Fatimah Abdullah will grace the event while the sponsors are Olivia Ling of Poppies, Samba and Pusat Tuiysen Riang Ria and Peter Tiong of Cafe Cafe.