The Sarawak artistic gymnastics give the thumbs up with Bogomil and Gergana at the Sarawak Gymnastics Stadium in Petra Jaya.
William He-Ling
KUCHING: Sarawak’s budding gymnasts continue to shine at the recent National Artistic Gymnastics Youth Circuit at Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur.
The 11-member team including four girls coached by Bogomil Ivanov Momchilov and Gergana Momchilova captured 14 gold, eight silver and 16 bronze medals for a total of 38 medals.
William He-Ling was the team’s star performer as he bagged three gold medals in the individual events.
The eight-year old Tunku Putra School was first in the Boys Pre-level Individual All Around, Rings and Vault.
He also collected a silver in the High Bar and Pommel Horse and recorded a fifth place finish in the Parallel Bars.
Students from SK St Mary’s and SK Siol Kanan also did well at the meet, with SK St Mary’s Qaisara Batrisya winning gold in the Girls Level 1 Individual All Around and Uneven Bars, Nurul Farisya taking the Vault gold, Marisa Adriana the Balance Beam gold while Edrianna Angel of SK Siol Kanan was the gold medallist in the Floor Exercise.
The girls also finished first in the Team event.
In the Boys Pre-level, Joachim Rafael Ambrose from SK Samariang Baru won the High Bar gold.
As for the Boys Class 1 category, Sarawak won the Team bronze.
SK Siol Kanan’s Mohd Nazreezanial Najib won the Vault gold, Haritz Haziq Indra bagged the golds in the Pommel Horse and Floor Exercise and Ariel Andrian Tubi from SK Astana won the High Bar gold.
Other representatives of the Sarawak team managed by Olivia Ling included Mohd Aqil (Sk Siol Kanan) and Hanis Firdaus (SK Samariang Baru).
“The Sarawak Amateur Gymnastics Association (SAGYMA), coaches and parents are elated with the team’s success and would like to appeal to corporations and individuals in the community to help support the development of these young talents,” said its president Helena Christine Wee.
According to her, SAGYMA were given annual grant from the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports but it was simply not enough as the association had to look after two disciplines, artistic gymnastics and rythmnic gymnastics.
In congratulating the state team for their excellent achievement at the national meet, Helena said Sarawak had done very well at the tournament especially the girls who made an almost clean sweep in the WAG Level 1 events.
“Given proper training and grooming, I am very confident they can deliver medals for the state at national meets and Sukan Malaysia (Sukma).
“In terms of junior development, we are doing much better when compared to some other states.
“I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate and extend my appreciation to Bogomil and Gergana who had been with us since 2007 and have achieved 329 gold medals until now,” she added.
“Hopefully they can continue to groom more high calibre gymnasts for the future competitions,” said Helena.
Fund-raising is always an issue and we look to the community for support,” said fund-raising chairperson Olivia Ling.
According to her, SAGYMA faced funding problem whenever it wanted to send gymnasts to national competitions and overseas for exposure.
“We would like to thank the Sarawak Sports Corporation and the High Performance Sports Unit Sarawak (USPTN) and other sponsors for their support in helping send the gymnasts to the national circuit,” she added.
She said SAGYMA will be organising a Gala Dinner in December to raise funds for its activities and hoped that the corporate sector and public will come forward and support the event.
Olivia can be reached at 012-8910817.