By Nur Ashikin Louis and Karen Bong
GEDONG, March 5: The involvement and participation of Sarawak youths in sports is still low at only 44.9 per cent, according to a survey carried out across all districts in the State.
Revealing this, Minister of Youth, Sport and Entrepreneur Development Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah emphasised the need to create more programmes and activities that could encourage youths to get back into sports.
“That’s why we have put effort into creating such an environment whereby the Premier of Sarawak has set aside a huge allocation to build sports facilities throughout Sarawak.
“If not mistaken, 17 more mini sports complexes have been planned with the projects in various stages of implementation to provide the people of Sarawak with places for leisure and sports,” he said.
“It is always good for the body and mind to stay physically active. In other countries, people flock to the sport complexes and other recreational areas in the early mornings and over the weekends,” he said in his speech at the launch of the inaugural Sarawak X-tive programme at Dewan Patinggi Ali here today.
The programme held simultaneously in 12 divisions across Sarawak is launched by Premier of Sarawak Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg from Gedong.
From participation in recreational and sport activities, Abdul Karim hopes it would trigger the interest of youths to want to train professionally and improve their skills to become professional athletes in contributing to the aspiration to make Sarawak a sports powerhouse.
He is also proud to learn that a Gedong boy from Kampung Lalang, Ibnuqaldoon Mohamad Shukor, will become the first Sarawakian to represent Malaysia in the e-sports category at the upcoming Sea Games in Hanoi this May, after landing a spot in the Free Fire tournament.
“This proves that anyone, whether you are from a city or a village, you can succeed and the most important thing is to have the passion, will and dedication,” he said.
To rebuild youth sports in Sarawak, Abdul Karim said that the Ministry has launched a calendar of activities for year 2022 with the motto “No weekend without a programme”.
Programmes and activities for youths, sports and entrepreneurs have been planned and will be implemented throughout Sarawak every weekend at all levels, be it district or sub-district, organised by the Ministry or related agencies.
Among the sports activities planned include e-sports, extreme sports, arm wrestling, fun ride or cycling and others.
“The Ministry and Sarawak government will also work on holding more competitions so that athletes can assess their level of competitiveness,” he added.
Meanwhile, the inaugural Sarawak X-tive programme is targeting 12,000 participants from 12 divisions in the State to participate in a variety of activities including futsal, fun ride, volleyball, wall climbing, boat races and so on.
Abdul Karim, who is also Minister of Tourism, Creative Industry and Performing Arts, hopes that the programme will become an annual event and a major programme under the ministry to promote an active lifestyle among people and improve sports participation among youths in particular.
“It will bring a lot of positive impact. Our hope is to produce energetic youths and a healthy society,” he said.
Minister of Utility and Telecommunication Datuk Julaihi Narawi and Assistant Minister of Creative Industry and Performing Arts Datuk Snowdan Lawan were also present. — DayakDaily
