Fatimah (front right) joins Para athlete (CP category) Tomson Lim Kok Hong (left) and teammates during a warming up exercise on the basketball court at the Youth and Sports Complex.
KUCHING: The Sarawak Contingent are aiming to capture 25 gold medals in the athletics competition of Para Sukma Johor in Johor next year.
Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development Minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said one of Sarawak’s strategies in ensuring they emerge victorious for the 14th consecutive time was to focus on the events that offer the most number of gold medals.
“Athletics and swimming are among the events that have the most gold medals at stake and we are targeting 25 golds in athletics, where there are 31 categories,” she told reporters during a visit to the state Para Sukma athletics team at the Youth and Sports Complex along Jalan Tun Ahmad Zaini Adruce today.
It was the minister’s second visit to Sarawak Para Sukma athletes this year after visiting the tenpin bowling team and SOPMA tenpin bowling team at Megalanes Sarawak, Batu Kawa in mid-June.
The athletics athletes resumed their physical training yesterday after a three-month interruption due to the implementation of the Movement Control Order brought about by the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to Fatimah, who is also Dalat assemblywoman, Sarawak will be represented by 50 athletes in athletics and the rest of the 158 athletes will take part in tenpin bowling, powerlifting, badminton, table tennis, boccia, lawn bowls, chess and archery.
The state contingent will be accompanied by 54 coaching and care officials.
“In the last Para Sukma in Perak, we were the overall champions after capturing 61 gold, 62 silver and 40 bronze medals. In Para Sukma Johor, we are aiming to capture more than 61 golds,” she said.
On the implementation of the age limit rule whereby athletes who are 45-years-old above are ineligible, she said all the other states are affected.
“We have lost two athletes who were gold medalists in previous Para Sukma but all the athletes in the Sarawak Contingent are below age 45.
“All our athletes are correctly classified to avoid disqualification in Johor,” she pointed out.
According to her, Johor will be posing the biggest threat to Sarawak’s bid to defend its crown as it has the home ground advantage while other teams expect to challenge Sarawak include Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Penang.
“I am sure that the home ground advantage for Johor doesn’t matter much to our athletes because they are in high spirits and have competed outside Sarawak many times,” added Fatimah.
For the record, Sarawak have won the overall championship 11 times outside the state apart from winning at home in 1996 and 2016.
Also present were the ministry’s community development and project section head Atiqah Dolhan, OKU development unit administrative officer Matthew Chin Hiong Choi who is also Persatuan Sukan Dan Rekreasi Orang Kurang Upaya Negeri Sarawak (PESRON) president and representatives from various Para associations.