KUCHING: Sarawak are aiming to be the overall champions for the 14th time at the 21st Para Malaysia Games (Para Sukma), to be held from Sept 20 to 28.
Minister for Women, Childhood and Community Wellbeing Development, Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah said the athletes have the chance of winning more gold medals since the Games will be held on home soil.
“The reason why we train our athletes is because we want them to be champions and from what I can see during their training sessions, there are some who are already in high spirits.
“Furthermore, we want to avenge our loss to Sabah from the previous Para Sukma 2022 where we lost (overall champions crown) by four gold medals.
“Since Sarawak will be hosting Para Sukma 2024, this is the perfect time for us to be the champions again for the 14th time.”
Fatimah said this at a press conference during her visit to the Youth and Sports Centre swimming pool on Tuesday (May 28).
Besides that, she mentioned that Sarawak are ensuring that the athletes are being correctly categorised because there are many categories for classifying them accordingly.
“We encountered this before at the Para Sukma held in Kuala Lumpur because one of our athletes was wrongly categorised, causing us to miss out on a potential gold medal.
“This is why we are trying to have zero errors in our athlete classification through screening our athletes at the state level.”
Additionally, Fatimah mentioned that Sarawak had produced Para athletes who are not only capable of performing at national-level competitions, but also competing on the global stage.
“We want Sarawak to be a powerhouse for Para sports, to prove that our talents can win both local and international competitions with style.
“I believe Sarawak have the potential to produce more capable talents who can win any medal colour, and this is why we need to know what we train for.”
Fatimah revealed that during Sarawak’s preparations for the Para Sukma, they started to identify talents back in January through the Talent Identification Programme for new athletes.
The programme is also aimed to replace athletes who are either competing at international level or cannot participate due to the age limit of 44 years old for the Para Sukma.
