Abang Johari poses with a Vespa scooter upon his arrival for the Ministry of Youth and Sports Appreciation Night. Also with him are (from left) Abdul Karim, Zuraini, Juma’ani, Melinda, Snowdan and Nancy. – Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi
KUCHING: The government has decided to build a high performance sports centre to strengthen the infrastructure to make Sarawak a sports powerhouse in the country, said Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.
The fully equipped sports facility will be built under the 12th Malaysia Plan.
“I concur with Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah that we must have a centre … Under this environment, our athletes can focus on their training and will be well prepared physically and mentally when participating in major events such as the Malaysia Games (Sukma) or international sports events,” he revealed at the Ministry of Youth and Sports Appreciation Night at a leading hotel here on Tuesday.
Abang Johari said he had also given approval to build several mini sport complexes around the state through the ‘Projek Rakyat’ to facilitate training for athletes.
“At the same time, we hope to identify the potentials young people have in their respective sports that they are keen on.
“It is our hope that they will develop their potentials and be able to excel in the sports that they like and, ultimately, this will bring about the good name of Sarawak and the spirit of challenge among our younger generation.”
He added that the state government would also look into reviewing incentives for state athletes who have excelled internationally to motivate more young and potential athletes to strive for excellence and aim to participate in international sports events.
Earlier, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said Sarawak needs a high performance sports centre if it wants to be a sports powerhouse.
While facilities such as the Bukit Jalil National Sports Complex in Kuala Lumpur are available, he added, it is quite difficult for Sarawak to send athletes there.
“We understand that in order to achieve excellence, we need to have a high performance sports centre so we carried out a study on a few models and even went over to New Zealand to find out how a nation with 4.8 million population is able to produce 16 gold medals in the Olympics.
“We found out that one of the reasons why they are so good in so many disciplines of sports was because their pool of athletes will be brought over to be ‘fine tuned’ at their high performance centre before the Olympics or any international events,” he said.
Also present at the event were Abang Johari’s wife Datin Patinggi Datuk Amar Juma’ani Tuanku Bujang, Karim’s wife Datin Zuraini Abdul Jabbar, Assistant Minister of Youth and Sports Datuk Snowdan Lawan and his wife Datin Melinda Claudia Bucking-Lawan and Ministry of Youth and Sports acting permanent secretary Nancy Jolhi.