National c’ship part of exposure plan for Sukma spikers

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Dato Moh Wung Ming

Dato Moh Wung Ming

SIBU: Sarawak Volleyball Association (Sava) will send the 2016 Sukma men’s and women’s teams to the National Open Championship to be held in Johor UTM from Nov 18-22.

Chief coach Dato Moh Wung Ming said the outing will serve to provide experience and exposure for the Sukma-bound players.

Noting that the players will be taking on the seniors from other states, he added: “This is a good platform to gauge the standard of our teams and with our players training all year round, we have every reason to believe that we will come back with a promising result.”

Moh revealed that this would be the second exposure trip for the Sukma team, the last being the National Under-20 championship when the girls returned with the title while the boys came in second.

“For the 2016 Sukma, our target remains two gold medals,” he said, adding that the shortlisted players included some who had played in the last edition of the Sukma.

“We have about seven to nine girls who are still eligible for the next Sukma while for the boys, we have about six. This is an encouraging sign and it cements the depth of our players and the rich volleyball grassroots development programme that provides an efficient supply of the back-up squad once the seniors retire.”

For the record, Sarawak women have lifted the Sukma crown for 14 times while the men have won the title seven times.

The women are reigning champions for the past two Sukma while the men were runner-up at the last Sukma.

But Moh cautioned his players against complacency, saying other states are catching up with their state junior development programme.

“Some of these states are actually looking to us and emulating our ways of churning out champions. To them, Sarawak has always been the role model state in producing elite volleyball players of national calibre.

“We have good leadership, a team of capable management, good coaches and players who are all very committed and dedicated towards the cause of the sport. Indeed, there is a saying that it’s always proud to be in the Sarawak team,” he added.

Also in the pipeline are six to eight international championships for the state players including exposure trips to Taiwan, Indonesia and Singapore.

Besides funding from the State Sports Council, he said Sava would have to fork out an additional RM200,000 to prepare the players for the 2016 Sukma.