100 para athletes for 2017 Sukan Sarawak

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File photo shows a para athlete with his guide in action during last year’s 18th Paralimpiad Games.

KUCHING: One hundred paralympic athletes from all over the state will be competing in Sukan Sarawak (SukSar) in Kuching from Dec 14 to 17.

Technical coordinator for para athletics in SukSar, Matthew Chin said the response from the participating zones (Northern, Central East and Southern) has been encouraging especially with the participation of young athletes.

“The competition will be interesting because there are a lot of young para athletes aged between 13 and 18 taking part in athletics at the Sarawak Stadium,” said Matthew, who is also president of Sarawak OKU Sports Association (Pestron).

There are only four events for para athletes in this year’s SukSar namely athletics, swimming, power lifting and archery in which all of the venues are located at the Sarawak Sports Complex in Petra Jaya.

The participating zones have also registered their para athletes to compete for the gold medals up for grabs in SukSar, with the bulk of it coming from athletics and swimming while the competitions for power lifting and archery are organised on a trial basis.

The para technical committee is still looking into the eligibility of the participants who firstly must fulfil the competition classification requirements and to assign them to the respective categories.

“We are still looking into the list of participants and the majority of them are competing in athletics and also in swimming,” said Matthew on the latest update of entries for the coming SukSar, which would provide a good avenue for young para athletes to gain good exposure by competing against their counterparts from other divisions.

In this respect, the Sarawak Sports Corporation (SSC) together with Sarawak State Sports Council (MSNS) are working closely with the relevant authorities including non-governmental organisations (NGOs) like Pestron in order to ensure the success of SukSar which is also showcasing the talents of new para athletes from throughout the state.

Sarawak had successfully defended its overall champions title in last year’s 18th Paralimpiad Games in Kuching and is banking on the new batch of para athletes to repeat the same feat in next year’s event to be held in Perak.

A total of 1,000 people from all over the state including para athletes are expected converge on Sarawak Sports Complex from Dec 13 onwards and they include coaches and contingent officials from the four participating zones.  The athletes and their coaches are scheduled to check into SukSar Games Village at Rafflesia College of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas), Kota Samarahan.

The opening ceremony is on Dec 14 at Stadium Perpaduan Negeri Sarawak in Petra Jaya and members of the public are cordially invited to witness the event, expected to run from 7pm onwards.

The closing ceremony is also to be held at the same venue on Dec 17.

Members of the public are also invited to support the athletes who will be competing in the following events: weightlifting, badminton, cycling, handball, lawn bowls, judo, karate, archery, muaythai, athletics, rugby, swimming and women’s sepak takraw.

The majority of the competitions are located at the Sarawak Sports Complex in Petra Jaya while petanque is to be held in Santubong, weightlifting at MBKS Indoor Stadium in Pending, seven-a-side rugby at Song Kheng Hai Ground in Jalan Padungan, badminton at Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) campus and muaythai at Summer Mall, Kota Samarahan.

Schedules for the competitions in SukSar are now available on its official website www.suksar.sarawak.gov.my.