Three dropped sports get reinstated for Sukma

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Sepak takraw, taekwondo, weightlifting still excluded from core sports

Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismai

KUALA LUMPUR: The Malaysia Games (Sukma) Supreme Committee meeting yesterday decided to reinstate sepak takraw, taekwondo and weightlifting in Perak Sukma scheduled in September this year.

National Sports Council (NSC) director-general Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail said the decision was unanimously agreed at the meeting chaired by Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin yesterday.

He however stressed that the three sports would still be dropped from the list of national core sports as decided at previous meetings of the Supreme Committee and the National Sports Council Board of Management last year.

“Evaluation as a core sport is through a different set of criteria and is more comprehensive compared to their involvement in the championships.

“The decision was made by the committee after taking into consideration several factors and concerns together with the application and appeal of the State Sports Councils represented by various concerned sports activists at grassroots level,” he said in a statement yesterday.

Ahmad Shapawi said the decision was made with several conditions and considerations, among them, taekwondo must give opportunities to athletes not from the Malaysia Taekwondo Association (MTA) through an evaluation process represented by the state MTA.

“For weightlifting, all athletes, coaches, officers and weightlifting enthusiasts at club, district, state and national levels have to ensure that there are no more doping cases in Sukma or in any other tournaments.

“If there is another doping case involving weightlifters, the sport would not be considered for future Sukma,” he said.

For sepak takraw, the Malaysian Sepak Takraw Association had met with the Youth and Sports Ministry (KBS) and agreed to restructure its organisation management and provide long-term development programme to improve the performance of the sport for each age level.

Sukma will be competed in five essential sports namely badminton, archery, athletics, table tennis and swimming and for Perak Para Sukma, the five sports are powerlifting, boccia, chess, lawn bowl and tenpin bowling. — Bernama