KUCHING: Sarawak Sports Corporation (SSC) Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ong Kong Swee expressed his disappointment with the recent decision by the National Sports Council’s to drop three main sports in the forthcoming 2018 Sukma (Sukan Malaysia) in Perak.
He said that two of the three main sports being dropped – taekwondo and weightlifting – may effect Sarawak’s achievement in Sukma.
“It is because the two sports have already started preparation since this year, so we have already prepared for almost one year. “It also may effect our result in forthcoming Sukma because we might lose almost 14 gold medals and it’s quite a lot,” he told reporters when commenting on the decision by the Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin during the rehearsal for the Sarawak Games opening ceremony on Wednesday.
“But for my point of view, you need to look into the development of sports. When you talked about development of sports, you look into the grassroots level and this grassroot level is those around 14, 15, 16, and 17 years old,” he pointed out. He added that although the decision has been made, they still need to carry on with the state sports development.
“But to me it is a bit drastic because we look at the development of sports which is going towards the Sukma and I disagree with the action taken. But he has the right.
“In a way I disagree because it got nothing to do with the national body but it got to do with the development of sports in the state,” he said again. He said the team will try to find other strategies in developing the other sports because the team only left 26 sports to look into.
The three sports that will be dropped are weightlifting, sepak takraw and taekwondo for the 2018 Sukma were decided during the NSC’s management board meeting on last Tuesday.
Meanwhile, all were set and ready for the opening ceremony of Sukan Sarawak or SukSar 2017 during the final preparation on Wednesday. The rehearsal took place at Sarawak Indoor Stadium (Stadium Perpaduan), in Petra Jaya here was attended by Sarawak Sports Corporation (SSC) Chief Executive Officer, Dr Ong Kong Swee who was seen giving the final touches for success in last night’s opening ceremony (Dec 14).
