Abd Karim: Sarawak’s Sukma athletes performing well, more medals expected

KUCHING (Aug 16): Sarawak’s Malaysian Games (Sukma) 2024 athletes have performed well in the first two days of competition, said Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.

The Minister of Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development told reporters this at the opening of the Sukma XXI Sarawak tennis competition at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) tennis centre here today.

“So far so good. We have sports like wushu, cycling, and tenpin bowling being held and those who made it to the finals have delivered medals for us.

“After two days of competition, we have captured three gold medals and are ranked third in the medals standings and we know we can win many more medals in other sports,” he said.

He was also happy to learn that the state won another gold medal in wushu this morning through Stephanie Ngu Chai Ern in the women’s qiangshu.

Stephanie became the first Sarawak athlete to bag three gold medals for this Sukma after capturing the changquan gold on the first day of competition on Wednesday and the jianshu gold yesterday.

Meanwhile, Abdul Karim said Sarawak is very well prepared for the challenge in the 21st edition of the national biennial games.

“I have mentioned all this while that we want to be the overall champions and it has been a long wait for us. The last time we were overall champions was 30 years ago in 1994. God willing, we will be the overall champions this time.

“We hope that our athletes will deliver and as for tennis I know there are a lot of players in the development stage because the good ones who have represented us in the previous Sukma are no longer eligible as they are overaged.

“The current crop of players are being developed for this Sukma and the coming Sukma competitions,” he said.

Abdul Karim said to develop the state’s athletes, Sarawak has also spent quite a lot to enable them to compete locally and overseas to improve their exposure for Sukma.

Among those present were Deputy Minister of Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development Datuk Gerald Rentap Jabu, who is also Sarawak Sukma Contingent chef de mission; Consul General of the People’s Republic of China in Kuching Xing Weiping; Deputy Minister of Transport (Riverine and maritime) and Sarawak Sukma Contingent assistant chef de mission for tennis Datuk Henry Harry Jinep; ministry permanent secretary Morshidi Fredrick; Sarawak Sports Corporation CEO Awang Putrayusrie Awang Redzuan; Lawn Tennis Association of Malaysia president Mirzan Mahathir; and SLTA president Datuk Patrick Liew Chin Joon.

A total of 120 players representing 14 teams are taking part in the tennis competition which commenced today, with nine teams vying for top honours in the mixed team event.