The Sarawak swimming team posing with head coach Hii Hieng Chiong (right, back row) coach Mandu Nyungkan (left) and team manager Sabrina Yusuf.
KUCHING: In the absence of Olympics-bound Welson Sim Wee Sheng, Sarawak will be looking to national swimmers Erika Kong Jia Jia and Angela Chieng Chui Fei to deliver the gold medals in the swimming competition at the Sarawak Aquatic Centre from July 23-27.
Welson will be competing in the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janiero, Brazil in August and skipping Sukma XVIII to concentrate on his quest for Olympic glory.
Another national swimmer Vernon Lee Jeau Zhi will also give this Sukma a miss and so is Sarah-Ann Thorpe who are both injured, with the former recuperating from a shoulder operation done four months ago and the latter nursing a wrist injury.
“So that leaves us with only nine swimmers each for the men’s and women’s competitions instead of the original team of ten male and ten female swimmers,” said Amateur Swimming Association of Sarawak (Asas) president Dato Wee Hong Seng in an interview.
He said Sarawak had “lost” at least three sure golds in the men’s individual events and two in the men’s relay events without the services of Welson and Vernon.
“We will be participating in all 38 events while Erika and Angela will be swimming in the middle to long distance events. Our target is winning at least four gold medals and we are hoping to get more and hopefully some of the swimmers who are making their debut appearance in Sukma can spring some surprises,” he added.
Wee said Selangor, who has a number of national swimmers beefing up the squad, and Kuala Lumpur who has two swimmers training and studying in the US, will pose the biggest threat to Sarawak whose swimmers are mostly young and lack experience.
However, Sarawak are unfazed by the setbacks and will be going all out for the overall champions title.
“Our swimmers come from Kuching, Samarahan, Sibu and Miri and they have been undergoing centralised training since April,” said Wee.
In Perlis Sukma two years ago, Sarawak finished second overall after losing to Selangor by a gold medal and they brought back nine gold, four silver and five bronze medals.