Sarawak is in high spirit as 43 athletes from Sarawak will be representing Malaysia for the upcoming 29th Southeast Asian Games 2017 that will take place from August 19th to 30th at Kuala Lumpur.
According to State’s Minister of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports YB Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, the 43 out of 876 Malaysian athletes will be competing in 18 different sports namely athletics, cycling, volleyball, football, squash, cricket, golf, gymnastic, taekwando, tennis, rugby, swimming, shooting, hockey, basketball, judo, wushu and diving.
“We hope that the Sarawak athletes will bag in as many gold medals as possible in the upcoming 2017 SEA Games,” he said adding that the list of sports is not final yet.
During the press conference at Bangunan Baitulmakmur on August 8th, YB Datuk Abdul Karim said as of now, the 876 athletes will be involved in 404 events from 38 different type of sports during 2017 SEA Games or commonly known as Kuala Lumpur 2017.
Among the State’s athletes that are expected to a bag gold medal for Malaysia includes 40 old year Diana Bong Siong Lin (wushu), the oldest athlete from Sarawak who will be competing in nanquan and the combined nandao and nangun.
Also expected to perform well at the SEA 2017 are Welson Sim Wee Sheng (swimming), Erika Kong Chia Chia (swimming) and Jonathan Nyepa in athletics.
Other athletes from Sarawak who will be representing Malaysia in 2017 SEA Games include Tracy Vivien (diving), Sanjay Singh Chal (squash), Kimberly Bong Qian Ping (diving), Arecia Esmeralda Menti Alfred Geling (gymnastic) and Ariana Nurminda Ariffin (cycling).
Present during the press conference were Assistant Minister of Youth and Sports Snowdan Lawan, Sarawak Sports Corporation CEO Dr Ong Kong Swee and Principal Assistant Secretary (Sports Section) Zul bin Haji Usup.
