By Vikneswaran Raman
KUCHING, Aug 25 (Bernama) -- Sarawak’s continued domination in the diving competition at the 2024 Malaysia Games (SUKMA) deserves praise but it also points to a worrying trend of other states not doing enough in terms of development.
Their lack of effort means a shortage of talent coming through, which then limits the pool of talented divers available for the national association - Malaysian Swimming (MS) - to showcase at international competitions.
Like national diving squad technical director Bryan Nickson Lomas said: “It’s time for the other states to step up.”
That’s very true indeed, because at SUKMA 2024, Sarawak snapped up nine out of the 12 gold medals at stake for a 75 per cent success rate.
Sarawak divers also bagged three silvers and two bronzes from the diving competition at the Pandelela Rinong Aquatic Centre.
Federal Territories (FT) took the other three golds, together with four silvers and four bronzes, followed by Terengganu (0-3-5), Perak (0-2-2) and Sabah (0-1-1) as the only states to win medals in the five-day diving competition which ended on Friday (Aug 23).
Among those who shone were national women backup divers Dayang Nursharzyra Awang Nasaruddin, who won three golds and a silver, and Nurul Farisya Alia Affendi (three golds) as well as male diver Elvis Priestley Clement (2-1-0), with all three from Sarawak.
But, those achievements aside, Bryan’s call for other states to step up to the plate rings loud and clear.
“… Overall, Sarawak remains a diving powerhouse but we want the other states to step up. I see that Terengganu has shown an improvement, while Kedah, Selangor and Johor are strengthening their programmes.
“Hopefully, Melaka will kickstart their new programme as the state has facilities that are quite good. It’s normal for the national and backup divers to dominate the Games. But, if there is one positive, it’s that other state divers did produce quite a few surprises,” he said.
But it’s not all doom and gloom because, as Bryan pointed out, there are some unpolished gems out there, like the two 15-year-olds - Uzlifatil Jannah Ashraf of Terengganu and Muhammad Lutfir Rahman Mohammad Razak of Sarawak.
Uzlifatil Jannah won silver in the women’s 1-metre (m) springboard and bronze in the women’s platform synchronised while Muhammad Luftir Rahman won gold in the platform mixed synchronised event and silver in the 1m springboard.
“We may propose for them to be roped into the national backup programme. Besides many of them are already in the backup and podium programmes,” he said.
Meanwhile, in swimming, FT emerged overall champions by winning 16 out of the 41 gold medals on offer.
FT, who also took home eight silvers and seven bronzes, are followed by Selangor (13-19-7) and Sarawak (9-1-7).
A few prospects were also unearthed. One of them is SUKMA 2024 Sportsman Andrew Goh, who won five golds, including setting a new national 100m breaststroke record (1:01.39s) and breaking the national 50m breaststroke record twice, with his time of 27.40s in the final surpassing the SEA Games mark of 27.566s set by Indonesia’s Felix Viktor Iberie at the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games.
FT’s Muhammad Dhuha Zulfikry (four golds, four SUKMA records and two silvers) is another who shone, as did Sarawak’s Kelly Teo (six golds, one silver, one bronze) and Selangor’s Lim Shun Qi (five golds, two silvers and one Games record).
Overall, two national records and 16 Games records were broken in the five-day swimming competition.
MS president Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim is of the view that those identified at SUKMA 2024 need to be sent for more national and international-level competitions to further lift their standards.
“We also hope that swimming will get more sponsorships from the private sector to help us hold more competitions. It’s difficult to develop talent without proper support.
“We need to create pathways for them to compete as often as possible. I also hope all the states will continue with their development programmes focusing on certain events, like Sarawak does with diving,” he said.
-- BERNAMA
