Women’s takraw squad focus on doubles, regu events
KOTA KINABALU: The Sabah women’s Malaysia Games (Sukma) takraw squad team development is now under way after returning to team training at the Kota Kinabalu Sports Complex (KSKK) takraw court, recently.
Head coach Daut Amba said they had been allowed and had started training at the court since June 23.
Like the athletes in other sports, Sabah’s takraw players had only been training at their own homes for the past three months due to the Covid-19 crisis.
Almost all outside activities including sports were halted following the enforcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO) on March 18 to prevent the spread of Covid19.
A number of sportsrelated activities came into effect when the MCO shifted to the conditional phase in May and subsequently to the recovery phase until August 31.
“The training environment is a bit different because we are still in the recovery phase of MCO and have to adhere to the standard operating procedures (SOP) such as social distancing, no physical contact, body temperature checks and the use of hand sanitizer.
“There are SOPs before, during and after training that need to be followed.
Of course we need to make sure they are complied with as they are for the health and safety of everyone,” Daut said when contacted here, yesterday.
He said they also had to train in compliance with SOP with a focus on fitness, agility and basic skills.
“Regardless, being able to train on the court is a good development. We can practise with more focus and we can monitor players’ training and development more easily than ever before,” said Daut who is also a state player.
He said a total of 11 players on the Sabah Sepaktakraw
Association (Astaka) longlist had been training but only eight players would be shortlisted to represent Sabah for Sukma.
It is said that only doubles and regu events will be contested for womens takraw in Sukma Johor 2020. Team events will not be contested.
Sukma Johor 2020 was originally scheduled to be held on July 11-19, but was postponed to March 6-14 2021 due to the Covid-19 crisis.
For the record, the women’s takraw squad was among the medal contributors for Sabah where they contributed three gold medals and one silver at the 2018 edition in Perak.