Lim Teck Leong
KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 20): It was mission accomplished for the Sarawak team as the 20th Sukma athletics competition came to a close at Bukit Jalil Stadium on Saturday.
They collected five gold, four silver, and six bronze medals.
Head coach Lim Teck Leong said although the five-gold target was actually very tough, the Sarawak team was determined to complete the task they set out to accomplish.
“The five-gold target is actually based on the ‘2 + 3’ model whereby two golds are guaranteed to be won and the other three will be stiffly competed.
“It must depend on the players’ on-the-spot performance plus a little miracle. There were indeed expected gold medallists who fell in the preliminaries,” he said.
Fortunately, on the last day of the competition, Evelyne Tan Xie Yie sprung a surprise to beat a national athlete for the women’s pole vault after she cleared 2.9m to achieve the team’s gold medal target.
Lim believes that Sarawak traditionally holds the edge in field competitions and has always been the powerhouse in this area.
Sarawak athletics team members gather for a group photo at Bukit Jalil Stadium at the end of the Sukma athletics competition.
This was obviously demonstrated during this Sukma where four out of the five gold medals that the state team won were from field events.
They were delivered by Jonah Chang Rigan (men’s shot put), Grace Wong Xiu Mei (women’s hammer throw), Ng Jing Xuan (women’s javelin), and Tan.
Mandy Goh Li won the only track gold in the women’s 400m hurdles.
Lim feels the track team must work harder, review, and make adjustments so that the track and field teams can achieve good results on both fronts.
This time round, the Sarawak team successfully made a breakthrough in the middle- and long-distance events.
Lucas Wong Sie Hong was impressive in securing bronze medals in the men’s 3,000m steeplechase and men’s 5,000m, as Sarawak last won a medal in the middle- and long-distance in 2004.
Jonah was the best performer of the team when he made his first Sukma appearance with the men’s shot put gold and silver in the hammer throw and discus.
As he is only 19 years old and therefore eligible to compete in Johor’s Sukma XXI, Lim expects him to get gold medals in all three events.
“There are eight gold medals offered in throw events and for sure we can target six out of eight,” said Lim.
Towards achieving this goal, he called on the Sarawak government to provide professional training venues for field throwing.