By Ling Hui
KUCHING, Aug 21: The Sarawak government will continue to support any taekwondo tournament or event despite being axed from the 2022 Sukan Malaysia (Sukma) Games.
Premier of Sarawak Datuk Patinggi Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg said this while also expressing disappointment that the national sports policy lacks consistency.
“(The) government of Sarawak will continue to support you (taekwondo). But, of course, Sarawak is saddened that taekwondo has been dropped in the coming Sukma (Games).
“When a sports event is listed in an organised sporting event, it has to be sustained and remain there because that is the only way to develop the sport.
“You can’t just drop taekwondo as one of the sports events. Otherwise, it will also happen to other sports events.
“If that is the case, we can never develop sports,” he said when officiating at the Premier of Sarawak Borneo Cup International Taekwondo (WTF) Championship 2022 closing ceremony held at Stadium Perpaduan here today.
Abang Johari stressed that only consistent policies could help the growth and development of the national sports arena.
With that, he hoped that the national sports policy could be reviewed so high-performance sports programmes like taekwondo would always be listed in the Sukma Games.
Taekwondo was among three sports dropped from the Sukma Games in 2017, together with weightlifting and ‘sepak takraw’.
It was reported in July that the women’s diving event would also be absent in this year’s Games due to minimum participation. — DayakDaily
