Kota Kinabalu: Sabah’s Sukma gold medallists at the Sarawak Games will be getting RM10,000 cash incentives from the State government.
Chief Minister Datuk Seri Hajiji Mohd Noor made the announcement on Saturday after a meeting with the Sabah wushu squad who managed to contribute three golds and one silver.
The incentive figure is also double the amount offered by the State government to the gold medal winners in the past.
“Every Sabah athlete who wins the Sukma gold medal this time will receive an incentive of RM10,000 compared to only five thousand previously.
“As for the silver and bronze medallists, the government will wait for the recommendation from the Youth and Sports Ministry after the Games,” he said.
He hoped that the Sabah contingent would succeed in reaching the target of 40 gold medals and urged the athletes to compete with high sportsmanship and maintain self-discipline for the good name of the state of Sabah throughout the competition.
He also congratulated the three wushu gold medal winners Amirah Sofea Azlan (sanda women’s 48kg), Dione Babyline Fely (sanda women’s 52kg) and Fyenlly Himon (sanda men’s 52kg) as well as silver medallist Ericson Bong Cheng Loong (men’s male gunshu toulu) during the meeting.
Also present at the Pullman Hotel were Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ellron Angin and his assistant Datuk Fairuz Renddan, State Secretary Datuk Seri Safar Untong and Youth and Sports Ministry permanent secretary Datuk Mansur Asun who is also the Sabah chef de mission.
Meanwhile, Sabah only captured one gold medal at the Sarawak Sukma Games on Saturday.
Lovelly Anne Robberth won the fifth gold for the State contingent in the karate women’s kata event in the afternoon.
Lovelly delivered a gold for Sabah in the women’s kata.
Her teammate also delivered one silver and three bronzes with the silver from Adeola Fay Robert in the women’s kumite-55kg category, while the bronzes came from Muhd Akid Muhammad Akid in the men’s kumite -67kg, Mohammad Haznil Henry in the men’s kata and Mohd Syahfiqrullah Halim in the men’s kumite -60kg.
The taekwondo exponents also contributed three bronze medals coming from their poomsae exponents Ned Augusti Nelson in the men’s category, Izza Qiatina Mat Saidi in the women’s category and the third from the poomsae mixed team (Dyna Farwizah MHD Zaini, Fitri Natasha Sabanah, Harry Lee Clare).
Sabah ended the day with a total of five golds, two silvers and eight bronzes in sixth position.
The fourth gold came late on Thursday night from the women’s sepak takraw team following their 3-0 win over Sarawak in the final group match.
Three early gold medals were won by wushu’s sanda exponents Amirah in the women’s 48kg category, Dione in the women’s 52kg and Fyenlly in the men’s 52kg.
The first silver came from Ericsson in the wushu men’s gunshu event earlier, while the other two bronzes came from the lawn bowls women’s four team and Emmanuel Fo in the tenpin bowling men’s singles event.
