KUCHING: Sarawak are taking part in the National Boccia Championship, which begins in Kuala Lumpur today and runs until April 13.
Boccia is a precision ball sport, similar to bocce, and related to bowls and petanque. The sport is played by athletes with physical disabilities.
The athletes are Willyien Cliff Honseng, Carlo Jay Chai Ping Yuan, Jeremy Lester Peter, Jervis Chi Hong Zhe, Angeline Melissa Lawas and Nur Aisyah Madzelan.
Welfare, Community Wellbeing, Women, Family and Childhood Development minister Datuk Seri Fatimah Abdullah was present at the Kuching International Airport to express her support and send the team off to Kuala Lumpur yesterday.
“It’s all part of the plan to get the Sarawak Paralympics team ready for Sukan Para Sukma 2020, which will be held in Johor,” she explained.
“The boccia team are the fourth from Sarawak to participate in the national circuit after tenpin bowling, swimming and powerlifting.”
“Sarawak bagged one gold, one silver and two bronze in tenpin bowling in Kuala Lumpur from March 17 to 21. The swimmers won 10 gold, 10 silver and eight bronze in the Malaysian Open in Kuantan from March 19 to 24.
“The powerlifting team won six gold, two silver and two bronze in the first National Circuit in Kuala Lumpur from March 29 to April 1,” she beamed.
“Four other teams, namely badminton, table tennis, chess and athletics are also getting ready for upcoming circuits in April, before the fasting month starts (early May).”
Meanwhile, Fatimah urged parents with disabled children to bring them for Talent Identification (TID) and classification of People with Disability (OKU) in sports programme.
“Over this weekend, the team will be in Mukah and Dalat to scout for talents among the OKUs.”
“There are 12 stations being planned and arranged throughout Sarawak (one in each division). The scouting team intends to complete the task by the end of July this year so that the selected ones can prepare for the Sarawak Games (Suksar) in Miri at the end of the year,” she explained.
“We are aware that there are athletes who are growing old so, we need new talents now. There will be time when the athletes will reach a very good level and they can participate in higher-level competitions such as Asean and the global stages,” she commented.
According to the team’s coach Honseng Andrias Nyawin, the athletes’ age ranged from 14 to 24 years old.
They are only targeting two medals in their second time of participation. Sarawak is providing tickets to one player and the father while the rest are sponsored by Paralympics Division of National Sports Council Malaysia.
Sarawak first sent a team to take part in the Sukan Para Sukma 2018 in Ipoh. Being novices, they did not win any medal, however, the seeds of development have started in Sarawak after the
competition.
