By Shikin Louis
KUCHING, Sept 22: Federal Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) will review the rules and regulations for Malaysia Games (Sukma) and Para Sukma to be standardised with SEA Games and Asean Para Games.
Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh disclosed that among the improvements carried out for this year’s Para Sukma is the minimum participation of two states and four athletes in any sports event.
“There are various classifications for athletes with disabilities (OKU) so if we do not give the athletes a chance to contest due to not meeting the minimum participation requirement, we may miss out on the potential talent to represent the national team.
“When we receive the feedback later on after Para Sukma ends, we will carry out a post-mortem together and we promise to do more improvements,” she told reporters when met during her visit to meet Para Sukma 2024 swimmers at Pandelela Rinong Aquatics Centre here today.
Pointing out that Malaysia is still lacking in women para-athletes, Yeoh further urged more OKUs and their parents to encourage them, to participate in sports try-outs.
She also called on the National Youth and Sports Department together with National Sports Council (MSN) to implement more Talent Identification (TID) programmes to unearth new athletes.
Additionally, she said the federal government has allocated a substantial amount to implement Sports Matching Grants (GPS) to encourage sports bodies to organise competitions at the state, national and international levels.
“Many athletes and para-athletes train hard but they do not have enough exposure to competitions. If they do not have the platform to contest, it will be a waste.
“When I attended the Paralympics, I was quite shocked to hear that our senior athletes are still feeling nervous. Thus, I believe those feelings of fear and nervousness before games could be reduced if we give them a lot of exposure to competitions apart from finding new talents,” she stated. — DayakDaily
