Fatimah (centre) joins the Sarawak contingent led by Dayang Mariani (next to Fatimah) and Khairuddin (right) for a photo at Kuching International Airport.
KUCHING: The Sarawak Special Olympics (SO) 5-a-side football team emerged champion at the 12th Special Olympics Borneo Cup held at Banjarbaru in Banjarmasin, Kalimantan which ended on Sunday.
Minister for Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, and Childhood Development Dato Sri Fatimah Abdullah, who was at the Kuching International Airport to welcome the team and officials, gave credit to the state government for the support.
“It has given our athletes the opportunity to expose themselves and to prepare them for bigger sports event like the Paralympic Games, Borneo Cup, Winter and Summer Games and at the world level. This is what I call inclusiveness at its best,” she said in a press statement yesterday.
“This is an example of how we want to make sure that our special needs people who have talents and interest in sports could develop their potentials and be given the opportunity to compete with other athletes,” she added.
She also promised to look into the possibility of giving incentives to reward the players.
“We will see our budget, if enough we will give incentives because you have won at the Asia Pacific level…we will work on it,” she said.
The eight-member Sarawak team, which was represented by the Kuching Special Olympics Chapter, wrested the challenge trophy from Brunei which had won the 11th edition hosted in Sarawak last year.
The footballers were selected out of 20 players in Kuching and Samarahan. They had undergone one month of intensive training under head coach Badrol Hisham Majid from SMK Demak Baru and his assistant Shahrul Reduan from SMK Asajaya.
The team manager was Professor Datuk Khairuddin Abdul Hamid.
Sarawak also won the Best Player Award through 19-year-old Haziq Hakimi Mohd Pono from Asajaya who scored four goals in the tournament.
Brunei, Labuan, Sabah, Sarawak, Kalimantan Timor (KALTIM), Kalimantan Tengah (KALTENG) and Kalimantan Selatan (KALSEL) are the participating teams in the annual tournament.
It also featured two other competitions called the SO 5-a-side unified (3 special, 2 normal) and the SO 5-a-side ladies unified (3 special, 2 normal).
Meanwhile, SO Kuching Chapter president Dayang Mariani, who led Sarawak’s contingent, was full of praise for her charges.
“We had to make sure that we did our best and make Sarawak proud in the eyes of Special Olympics Asia Pacific. We are all very proud of our boys” she said.