Dominic (fourth left) and Sasa advisor Datuk Seri Teng Chi Lik (fifth left) celebrate with the Sarawak team and supporters.
KUCHING: Sarawak pullers bagged six gold and three bronze medals at the recent National Armwrestling Championship in Cyberjaya.
Sarawak Armwrestling Association (Sasa) president Matthew Dominic Barin was impressed with the performance as it was the first time Sarawak participated in the national event.
The championship had attracted 312 participants from 14 states contesting in 36 categories.
“We were aiming for three gold medals but winning three more is a bonus for us. Our pullers’ achievement was amazing when they brought back six gold medals. This is a great achievement so far for the Sarawak armwrestlers,” he said.
The gold medallists were Harith Joseph and Kenny Choo who bagged two golds each in the Masters categories (each arm) and Bernice Gan also won two golds in the Women’s categories (each arm).
The bronze medals were contributed by Abigail Kee, Evin Ng and Cristal Adam.
Team manager Stephen Kee revealed that the pullers had been busy preparing for the challenge ever since the Sarawak State Championship on June 23 this year.
“We had intensive training under the guidance of a professional coach. We will be back stronger in the next competition.
“We believe that Sarawak can produce more strong armwrestlers in a few more years to come,” he added.
Menawhile, Dominic said Sasa is planning to reach and unearth the new talents in the schools and especially in rural areas. We know that there are more stronger Sarawakians out there. We call them to come over and train with us at Premier 101 Community Club Armwrestling Gym, the J4WZ Bau Armwrestling Club.
“We have the strongest and eldest puller in Malaysia for the Master Under 75kg, Kenny Choo who is 52 years old as well as the youngest puller in the country, Abigail Kee who is a 14-year old student of SMK Batu Lintang,” he said.
“Why shouldn’t we have more younger and yet stronger pullers from Sarawak. We want the youth to get involved in healthy activities to stay away from taking illegal drugs, committing crimes and so on.
Sasa will next be sending pullers and referees to the 40th World Armwrestling Championship (WAC) in Antalya, Turkey from Oct 12 to 22.
On the local front, Sasa will stage the Siniawan Street Cowboy Armwrestling Competition at Siniawan Bazaar, Bau from Oct 5 to 6.