Abang Johari poses with a Vespa scooter upon his arrival for the Ministry of Youth and Sports Appreciation Night. Also with him are (from left) Abdul Karim, Zuraini, Juma’ani, Melinda, Snowdan and Nancy. – Photo by Muhammad Rais Sanusi

KUCHING: The government has agreed to build a high performance sports centre here to strengthen its sports infrastructure in efforts to make Sarawak a sports powerhouse in the country, said Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg.

He said the fully equipped sports facility will be built under the 12th Malaysia Plan.

“I concur with Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah that we must have a centre among sports enthusiasts and the government will not hesitate to invest in building this facility.

“Under this environment, our athletes can focus on their training and will be well prepared physically and mentally when participating in major events such as the Malaysia Games (Sukma) or international sports events,” he said at the Ministry of Youth and Sports Appreciation Night at a leading hotel here last night.

Abang Johari said he had also given approvals to build several mini sport complexes around the state through the ‘Projek Rakyat’ to facilitate training for athletes.

“At the same time, we hope to identify the potentials young people have in their respective sports that they are keen on.

“It is our hope that they will develop their potentials and be able to excel in the sports that they like and ultimately, this will bring about the good name of Sarawak and the spirit of challenge among our younger generation.”

Earlier, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said Sarawak is in need of a high performance sports centre if it wants to be known as a sports powerhouse.

He pointed out that though facilities such as the Bukit Jalil National Sports Complex are available, it is nevertheless quite difficult for Sarawak to send athletes there.

“We understand that in order to achieve excellence, we need to have a high performance sports centre so we carried out a study on a few models and even went over to New Zealand to find out how a nation with 4.8 million population is able to produce 16 gold medals in the Olympics.

“We found out that one of the reasons why they are so good in so many discipline of sports was because their pool of athletes will be brought over to be ‘fine tuned’ at their high performance centre before the Olympics or any international events,” he said.

He hoped that with the availability of a high performance sports centre in Sarawak, the state will be able to nurture and produce really good athletes in the future.

Also present were Abang Johari’s wife Datin Patinggi Datuk Amar Juma’ani Tuanku Bujang, Karim’s wife Datin Zuraini Abdul Jabbar, Assistant Minister of Youth and Sports Datuk Snowdan Lawan and his wife Datin Melinda Claudia Bucking-Lawan and Ministry of Youth and Sports acting permanent secretary Nancy Jolhi.