Sabah lauds decision to reinstate three sports for 19th SUKMA

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah welcomes the decision to include sepak takraw, taekwondo and weightlifting back in the list of sports for the 19th Malaysia Games (SUKMA) which is happening in Perak, this September.

The Perak SUKMA Supreme Council Committee meeting chaired by Malaysia's Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin in Putrajaya on Thursday decided that the three sports, which were previously dropped, would be reinstated as optional sports.

The decision was made after taking into account several factors including appeals from sports councils of various states in the country, which represented athletes at grassroots level.

Permanent secretary to the Sabah Youth and Sports Ministry, Datuk Awang Damit Anak, said Sabah is relieved with the decision as it often depended on the three sports to produce medals.

“The decision also brings positive impact on the development of sports in the country because we (Sabah) are not the only ones who appealed, but other states as well.

“Thank you to the committee especially Khairy for being concerned and allowing the three sports to be included back in the list of sports for SUKMA 2019,” Awang Damit said when met here, yesterday.

He said the decision allowed the contingent to re-focus its preparations for the biennial games after a previous announcement in December to drop the three sports from the SUKMA list.

Meanwhile, Sabah Sports Council director, Terrance Edward Pudin said the decision was a boost to Sabah's weightlifting, taekwondo and sepak takraw squads.

“But this means that we must double our efforts to prepare for SUKMA because it was previously thought that the three sports would not be included.

“We will take advantage of the remaining periods to ensure weightlifting, sepak takraw and taekwondo remain as one of the major medal contributors,” he said.

The previous SUKMA in Sarawak saw weightlifting contribute four gold medals, five silvers and eight bronzes, while sepak takraw produced one gold medal and taekwondo one silver and one bronze.

Terrance said SSC would also ensure that conditions set by the Perak SUKMA Supreme Committee to re-enter the three sports would be followed.

Among the conditions for taekwondo is that athletes who are not from Taekwondo Malaysia (TM) must be given the opportunity to go through the selection process to represent the state to SUKMA and if necessary to represent the country in any international tournament.

TM was also asked to work on the unification of the other taekwondo associations within the sport.

For weightlifting, all athletes, coaches and officers at club, district, state and national levels, are required to ensure that no more doping cases occur at SUKMA or any other tournament.

If a doping case occurs at any tournament, weightlifting will be dropped indefinitely from future competitions in SUKMA.

For sepak takraw, the national governing body has partnered with the Federal Ministry to restructure organisational management and provide a more detailed long-term development programme to improve the sport's performance.

The decision to reinstate the three sports at SUKMA Perak, however, did not change the policy decision that the three sports were dropped from the NSC list of core sports.

Assistant Minister of Youth and Sports, Datuk Masiung Banah represented his minister at the meeting accompanied by Terrance.