Chef de mission confident stadium ready on time

KUCHING: Sarawak has a plan ‘B’ to change the venue if the stadium currently under construction does not meet the criteria set by the high committee and fails to be completed by the contractor for the use of athletes from various contingents at the 2024 Malaysia Games (SUKMA) XXI.

Deputy Minister of Youth, Sports, and Entrepreneurship Development, Datuk Gerald Rentap Jabu, explained that this effort is on their radar to avoid any last-minute cancellations of sports events scheduled to be contested.

“We have a plan ‘B’ to relocate the stadium or venue if any are not completed before the start of SUKMA XXI 2024,” he said.

He said this when met by reporters after conducting inspections at several stadiums around Petra Jaya here today (July 3).

Rentap, who is also the Sarawak SUKMA chef de mission, believes this problem will not occur as the appointed contractor is certainly capable of fully completing all the stadiums for use throughout the biennial event.

This takes into account the final phase of the preparation work being carried out by the contractor.

Therefore, he added, there should be no problem in seeing the stadiums ready for use as soon as possible to allow Sarawak athletes to familiarise themselves with the venues.

On the same day, Rentap also conducted inspections at several venues such as Stadium Perpaduan, Stadium Sarawak, the High-Performance Sports Centre, Pandelela Rinong Aquatic Centre, and the Sarawak Athletes Sports Village.

He said he would continuously monitor the progress of completing all the venues to be used for SUKMA XXI.

Rentap will continue his inspection sessions at several other venues such as squash, shooting, wushu, cricket, and the hockey stadium.

Accompanying him were the deputy chairman of the SUKMA XXI Technical and Competition Committee, Dr. Mohd. Shafiq Abdullah, and the Sarawak State Sports Council (MSNS) Sports Officer, Head of SUKMA XXI Preparation Unit, Abdul Muktalib Mohamad.