Selangor, Johor Offer RM10,000 Reward For Gold Medal, Five States Still Undecided

KUCHING, Aug 13 (Bernama) -- In recognition of the commitment and achievements of athletes who brought honours to the contingent at the Sarawak 2024 Malaysian Games (SUKMA), a cash reward awaits each medal winner at the biennial games.

Selangor and Johor are the two states that each offer the highest incentives of up to RM10,000 for gold medal winners in SUKMA 2024.

Pahang, on the other hand, offers an incentive of RM6,000 while five states promise rewards of RM5,000 to athletes who succeeded in winning gold medals in individual events, namely Perlis, Perak, Federal Territories, Melaka, Negeri Sembilan.

Meanwhile, five other states including the host have yet to announce the 'special reward' for the gold medal winners are Penang, Sabah, Kelantan and Terengganu who were also runners-up in the last edition.

The Johor contingent will travel to the Land of the Hornbills with the mission of defending the championship title promised an incentive of RM10,000 for the individual event athletes while the team will be RM20,000 for winning a gold medal at the 21st edition of the Games.

Meanwhile, Selangor promised a reward of RM10,000 for each individual gold medal winners, RM5,000 per person (team event of under five people) and RM3,000 per person (team event of more than five people), tripled the amount given in 2022 edition. 

For Pahang, an incentive of RM6,000 is offered to the gold medal winner, up from RM4,000 previously.

Perlis, which has set a target of 10 gold medals through taekwondo, athletics, weightlifting and sailing, is offering RM5,000 for gold medal winners with RM3,700 and RM2,400 for athletes who won individual silver and bronze medals.

For Perak, besides the RM5,000 reward for the gold medal winner, the athletes who won the silver medal will receive RM3,000, the bronze RM1,000, while for the team category, RM2,500 is provided for the gold medal, RM1,500 silver and RM500 bronze.

The Federal Territories contingent (WiPers) will give incentives amounting to up to RM5,000 for gold medal winners (individual and team), RM2,000 for silver, while RM1,000 for bronze to reward athletes.

At the SUKMA 2022 in Kuala Lumpur, WiPers finished third overall with 55 gold, 68 silver and 64 bronze medals.

Also offering incentives based on the colour of the medal is Melaka, which is RM5,000 for the gold medal, RM3,000 for silver and RM1,500 for bronze, in addition to the winners also having the opportunity to receive additional rewards from their respective parent associations and adopted agencies.

Negeri Sembilan also provides an incentive of RM5,000 to individual athletes from the state who managed to win a gold medal at this Games in addition to RM3,000 for silver and bronze winners (RM2,000).

The Kedah government will give a reward of up to RM4,000 to the state's athletes who manage to win the gold medal while the silver medalist will receive a reward of up to RM2,500, while the bronze medalist will receive up to RM1,300.

Penang and Terengganu also promised special rewards to the winners according to the colour of medal, but did not announce the amount, while Kelantan has so far not stated whether it will provide special incentives or not.

For the hosts, Sarawak Premier Tan Sri Abang Johari Tun Openg hinted that the incentives to be received by the host athletes who successfully contribute medals at SUKMA 2024 will be 'better' than previous games.

SUKMA Sarawak 2024 will take place from Aug 17 to 24 2024 involving nine divisions namely Kuching, Samarahan, Serian, Sri Aman, Betong, Sibu, Mukah, Bintulu and Miri with competition in 37 types of sports with 488 gold medals to be won.

-- BERNAMA