New lawn bowls stadium at Stadium Complex gives Sarawak a headstart
The Sarawak Lawn Bowls Stadium is the third covered lawn bowls stadium in the country and national coach Zuraidi Puteh (inset) is confident that Sarawak lawn bowls can attain greater heights with the sports facility at Petra Jaya.
KUCHING: The new lawn bowls stadium at the Sarawak Stadium Complex in Petra Jaya is set to spur Sarawak to powerhouse status in the sport.
This confidence oozed from national coach Zuraidi Puteh who is very impressed with Sarawak’s commitment to bring the sport to greater heights.
“This new stadium will give a big impact on the development of lawn bowls in Sarawak. It’s for sure that the state will become force to be reckoned with in lawn bowls in time to come,” he said last Saturday.
According to Zuraidi, lawn bowls is lucky to have Awang Mahyan Awang Mohamed as the Sarawak Lawn Bowls Association (Salba) president, thanks to his proven ability to develop the sport and ensure that Sarawak continue to excel in lawn bowls.
“With such a capable leader like Mahyan, I am quite confident the development and progress of the sport is very bright and can reach greater heights,” he added.
The former state coach was also confident that the stadium will become a happy hunting ground for the state lawn bowlers in Sukma XVIII from July 22-31.
Under his guidance from 2004 to 2009, Sarawak were crowned overall champions in Terengganu Sukma in 2008 with two gold and three bronze medals.
Meanwhile, on the preparations of the national team for the SEA Games and Commonwealth Games, Zuraidi said they were now busy training overseas under the “Podium” and “We are Champions” programme. The national bowlers will also take part in some exposure tournaments and they are now competing in the Australian Open lawn bowls championship.
He said Malaysia are targeting four gold medals in the singles, pairs, trios and quartet.
“The squad is not finalised yet and we are monitoring some potential bowlers from Sarawak to be roped into the national team,” he said.
For the SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur next year, Malaysia will be facing stiff competition from Brunei and the Philippines.
The country’s best performance at the SEA Games was capturing five gold medals in 2001 in Kuala Lumpur.