KUCHING: The Sarawak petanque team will be banking on experienced players for the coming Malaysia Games (SUKMA).
The petanque coach, Mohamad Ahir Binar said his targets for the petanque team would be five medals.
“The current target would be two gold medals, one silver and two bronze,” said.
He said he will be hoping for young prospects in the likes of Akhtar Shauqi Aini Mohd Dom, Nur Durratul Sahira Yazit and Ain Afzan.
“They have shown confidence, high discipline and good attitude coming into this SUKMA.
“Currently, Akhtar is a national player and he has shown good performance especially in his throws,” he told Sarawak Tribune in an interview recently.
Mohamad Ahir also shared that the current squad this time features 14 players, including five who have previously competed in the SUKMA 2022.
He also shared that the team has performed well in several tours to Sri Aman, Saratok, Sibu and Bintulu as well as exposure abroad to Negeri Sembilan and Thailand.
Mohamad Ahir shared that the team recently trained for 13 hours a day from 6 am until 7 pm but the current training has been reduced to eight hours focusing on lighter training.
Additionally, Akhtar Shauqi Aini Mohd Dom shared that he targets gold medals in the mixed doubles and mixed triple events.
The Samarahan lad who was a bronze medalist at the 2023 SEA Games in the mixed triple category will set sights to do better in his second time participating in SUKMA and will look to improve on his performance.
“I hope to improve from my previous outing in SUKMA and hope to do well,” said the 17-year old hopeful studying at SMK Kota Samarahan.
Meanwhile, Nur Durratul Sahira Yazit, 21 said that the team’s performance has been the best so far.
“Training sessions have been good. For this SUKMA, I will be competing in the mixed double and mixed triple events,” she said.
Nur Durratul Sahira who grew interested in petanque because of her family’s involvement in the game started playing when she was 14.
She added that she wishes to improve and hope to do her best for the coming Games.
