Rahman (eighth right), Rodzli (sixth right), Zainuddin (eighth left) and Saberi (seventh left) join guests. other officials and the Sarawak Sukma shadow team for a photo-call at the Santubong Petanque Centre yesterday.
Ahmad Saberi Yusuf
KUCHING: Sarawak petanque players are targeting to capture two gold medals in the 20th Sukma to be held in Johor from March 6 to 14 next year.
According to head coach Ahmad Saberi Yusuf, a squad of eight male and seven female players have been training since last July.
“There are now 12 players from Kuching training at the Santubong Petanque Centre while the others are training at their respective centres in Betong and Saratok.
“We will be sending seven male and seven female players to Johor and the final list of the Sarawak team will be known by end of December,” he told reporters at the Santubong Petanque Centre yesterday.
A total of 11 events will be contested in the sport at the Johor Sukma and Sarawak is aiming to win a medal in each event.
Saberi revealed that the main focus to prepare the state players is for them to go for more exposure stints.
“The Ambang Merdeka Petanque Double Championship here today and tomorrow is one of the exposure events for our players. We will be sending them to Johor from Sept 15 to 30.
“The national team will be training in Johor in September and we will get our players to play friendly matches against them while at the same time get them to adapt to the Sukma competition venue,” he added.
The Sarawak players will also travel to Negeri Sembilan to play friendly matches against their Sukma team from November 6 to 8.
“We have also planned to hold roadshows in other divisions so that our players can spar with players there,” added Saberi.