KUCHING: Sarawak has set an ambitious target of winning 80 gold medals at the next Paralympic Games in 2016 which Sarawak will be hosting. Welfare, Women and Family Development minister Datuk Fatimah Abdullah has expressed her confi dence based on the fact that the state paralympians have an excellent track record over the years.
“2016 will be a special year as Sarawak will be hosting two major games namely the Sukma and Paralympics,” she said at the Healthy Athletes Programme for Coaches organised by the Special Olympics Kuching at Grand Continental Hotel here yesterday.
“It’s an achieveable target and our hopes are high. More importantly, the game will be held in our home land,” she said. The plan is also to send a bigger contingent next year and uncover more potential athletes to participate in more sports.
“We do not only bank on previous athletes but also working on discovering and training more new talents,” she added. Fatimah revealed that she had just chaired a meeting with a committee on Friday to lay out strategies to prepare athletes for the Paralympics.
At the last Paralympics held in Perlis in 2014, Sarawak bagged 66 gold medals to win the overall champion title for a record 10th time. On the Health Programme, Fatimah emphasised that people with disabilities also deserved access to quality health care. “There is no question on equality in this because we recognised that people with disabilities have severe need and higher health risk due to poor nutrition and sedentary lifestyles,” she said.
Ordinary people, she explained, already fi nd it tough to fi nd the motivation or time to exercise but what more to say of the disabled people who faced greater challenges in their daily life. “Therefore, this programme is important to provide accessible sports and recreational programmes that stress fi tness, skill development, quality coaching and competition.” “The activities have to be fun so to encourage the disabled people to exercise,” she added.
As such, Fatimah highlighted that coaches and parents in particular play crucial role so the disabled children can have more opportunities to lead full, healthy and productive lives. The Health Programme provides free health screening in a fun and welcoming environment. Special Olympics Sarawak is a global non-governmental organisation which conducts sports training programmes and international competition for people with intellectual disabilities. Its Kuching president Datin Dayang Mariani was also present.