Some athletes arriving to try out the track at the Jubille Ground yesterday. State sprinter Norris Foo is second from the right.
KUCHING: 818 athletes will take part in the 42nd MSS Sarawak Track and Field Championship to be held at the Jubilee Ground here starting at 7.30am today.
The four-day meet will be declared open by Housing and Tourism Minister, Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg.
The school athletes are representing the various divisions in the state: Kuching, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Betong, Sarikei, Sibu, Kapit, Mukah, Bintulu, Miri and Limbang.
The boys and girls will compete in four age-groups of Under-18, Under-15, Under-14 and Under-12.
The meet also represents a coming home of sorts for the Jubilee Ground.
In its first two decades the annual championship was held mostly in the Jubilee Ground
and occasionally in Sibu’s then King George VI Memorial Ground.
Those were the only two sports venues in the state with bitumen running tracks until the mid 1980s.
But since then, the meet has been held in towns outside Kuching and Sibu which have synthetic running tracks.
Fans can look forward to exciting track and field action at the Jubilee Ground over the next four days.
Sarawak has dominated the national schools track and field meet – winning the championship crown in 18 of the past 19 years.
At last year’s national championship in Pahang, school athletes from the state triumphed again with a tally of 18 gold medals to beat back rivals Selangor and Perak which bagged 12 and 11 gold medals respectively.
Highlights on the first day of this state championship include the 200m hurdles and 400m hurdles (all finals from 2pm) and 100m (all finals from 4.30pm).
The last day of the meet will be this Saturday.