KUCHING: Sarawak wants to becoming a sporting powerhouse in the country but Datuk Seri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah is fully aware that it will take a herculean effort.
But he remains optimistic, confident that a whole generation of Sarawak sportsmen and women will be good enough to go toe to toe against the world’s best some day.
Karim, who is Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development Minister, feels an important step towards achieving this goal is to have mental toughness to compete at an elite level.
Mental toughness is the key for Sarawak’s coaches and sportsmen and women to become champions, he said.
Karim made these observations at the opening of the 9th Asian South Pacific Association of Sport Psychology (ASPASP) International Congress 2022 here Today (Aug 9).
“By supporting the organising of this congress, it is a small step towards achieving this eventual goal of becoming a sporting powerhouse.
“I am therefore optimistically hopeful that future Sarawakian sportsmen and women will benefit from the effective exchange of knowledge in this congress,” he said.
The congress, which is being held from August 9-11, is organised by the Sarawak Sports Psychology Association (SASPA) in collaboration with Universiti Teknologi Mara (UiTM) Sarawak and Institute of Teacher Education (ITE) Batu Lintang Campus, with support from ITE Tun Abdul Razak Campus and Sarawak Sports Corporation (SSC).
It aims to provide avenues for the establishment of collaborative networking among the sports psychology community within the Asia Pacific region.
It is also aimed at enhancing the role of sports psychology in meeting the psychological needs and demands of athletes and non-athletes in order for them to be competitively successful.
The congress is being attended by 143 foreign and 74 local presenters and delegates, as well as 127 undergraduate students from UiTM Sarawak, ITE Batu Lintang Campus, and ITE Tun Abdul Razak Campus.
