Perak eyes 50 golds, top-five finish at Sukma

IPOH: Perak is targeting at least 50 gold medals and a top-five finish at the Malaysia Games (Sukma) in Selangor from Aug 15-24, a significant improvement from its seventh-place finish at the previous edition in Sarawak.

State Education, Higher Education, Youth and Sports Committee chairman Datuk Khairudin Abu Hanipah said the target, however, is not official yet and was based on preliminary assessments by managers and coaches across the 37 sports to be contested by the Perak contingent. 

“We will conduct further evaluations based on the athletes’ current performances before announcing the official target.

“We want to improve on our achievement at the previous Sukma in Sarawak, where Perak won 35 gold medals and finished seventh overall,” he said.

Perak contingent is expected to field 826 athletes at the Games.

“Perak will not compete in every event, but our focus will be on the combat sports, as well as athletics, shooting, archery and e-sports,” he said.

Perak is hoping the judging aspect in subjective events would receive serious attention to ensure fair competitions and would not give rise to disputes as seen previously.

Khairudin said preparations for this year’s Games began last year through various athlete development programmes.

He added that the commitment shown by the state government together with the sports associations and officials had strengthened the preparations. — Bernama