Kota Kinabalu: Sabah will be sending 713 athletes to participate in the 21st Malaysian Games (Sukma) scheduled to start on August 13 until August 24 in Sarawak.
They will be accompanied by 235 sports officials including team managers and coaches in addition to 93 support officers.
Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ellron Angin, who made the announcement on Thursday, said the chef de mission will be the Ministry’s permanent secretary Datuk Mansur Asun.
“We will be competing in 408 events out of the 488 total with 197 in the men’s category, 178 in women and 33 in the mixed category.
SPONSORED CONTENT Shell awards Sabah LiveWIRE winners Kota Kinabalu: Shell has awarded five enterprises as the state winners of Shell LiveWIRE Malaysia 2024, following the Sabah state finals held at Plaza Shell in Kota Kinabalu. . Read more “Three hundred and ninety or 55 per cent of our athletes in the team were selected through the Sabah Games in 2023. It is an increase of 16 per cent from the last Sukma in 2022,” he said.
He also said they hope to surpass their previous best of 33 gold medals achieved at the Perak Games in 2018.
“Our target remains at 40 gold medals. We are confident of achieving it but then in sports anything can happen. No matter how, we will give our best.”
He also said as head of the State contingent delegation, he urged all officials and athletes to show discipline and the highest patriotic spirit in maintaining a good name for the State.
He also expressed his gratitude to the State government under Datuk Seri Hajiji Noor for their continued support and also to Universiti Malaysia Sabah, Sabah Sports Board, State Education Department, State Health Department and all the sponsors.
The 35 sports that the State athletes will be competing in this year are aquatic, weightlifting, badminton, cycling, netball, basketball, football, volleyball, lawn bowl, E-sport, gymnastic, golf, hockey, judo, karate, cricket, fencing, archery, shooting, muaythai, athletics, sailing, pencak silat, petanque, ping pong, rugby, sepak takraw, silambam, squash, softball, Taekwondo, tennis, tenpin bowling, boxing and wushu.
Only chess and kabaddi are omitted and Ellron said the non-participation in chess is due to some technical issues while kabaddi is still new to the State and there is no association or development programme for it.
The games this year will be held in nine divisions throughout Sarawak with 22 in Kuching, one each in Samarahan, Serian, Sri Aman and Betong, two each in Mukah and Bintulu, three in Sibu and six in Miri.
Meanwhile, also present at the press conference on Friday were Assistant Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Fairuz Renddan, Mansur, Sabah Sports Board chairman Masly Ansilau, Sabah Sports Council director Asneh Mohd Noor and Sabah Sports Board general manager Terrance Pudin.
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