Karim (centre), flanked by Snowdan on his left and Ong on his right, speaks at the Sukma XIX ACDM meeting yesterday. – Photo by Teo Chi Wei
KUCHING: Assistants chef-de-mission (ACDM) of the Sarawak Sukma XIX Contingent and sports coordinators have to work closely with the officials and athletes of the various sports they have been assigned with.
In making this call, Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said it was vital for them to be vigilant and monitor the athletes’ welfare during the games in Perak from Sept 12-22.
He said apart from the competition for medals, there are other challenges especially logistics as the 13 competition venues are spread all over Perak.
“Teams like Sarawak and Sabah will have to spend a lot of money to bring our contingents to Perak while transportation, accommodation and food are also things that we need to look into,” he said during the Sukma XIX ACDM meeting at a local hotel yesterday.
“We are having the biggest number of 17 ACDMs this Sukma and that shows how serious we are in our quest to be the overall champions this year.
“It has been 24 years since we won the overall championship title which was also coincidentally in Perak. We hoped to achieve it at the last Sukma in Sarawak which was our best opportunity with the home ground and home supporters but we didn’t win.
“I hope we can win and I am very confident we can do it in Perak. It will be a sweet victory for us if we win Sukma outside the state,” he said.
The ACDMs for the Sarawak contingent are Dato Ahmad Ibrahim (cycling and judo), Dr Abdul Rahman Junaidi (petanque and handball), Henry Harry Jinep (swimming and diving), Gerald Rentap Jabu (weightlifitng, boxing and rugby), Azizul Adenan (taekwondo and lawn bowls), Datin Mary Saadiah (hockey, artistic gymnastics and rhythmic gymnastics, Christopher Gira Sambang (golf and sailing), Miro Simuh Ugon (sepak takraw and netball), Kennedy Chuckpai Ugon (muay and athletics), Sunny Si Poh Heng (tenpin bowling and shooting), Fazzrudin Abdul Rahman (football, futsal and silat), Allan Siden Gramong (archery and karate), Allen Wong Siew Poh (wushu, badminton and basketball) and Robert Lau Hui Yew (squash and cricket).
The Chef de Mission is Datuk Snowdan Lawan while his deputies are permanent secretary to the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports Hii Chang Kee and Sarawak Sports Corporation CEO Dr Ong Kong Swee.