Perak will host the 19th Malaysian Games or Sukan Malaysia (SUKMA) scheduled for September 12 to 19, 2018. The first SUKMA was held in 1986 in Kuala Lumpur. It is a game held every two years with the host being determined by consensus.
The last time Perak hosted the games was in 1994. Incidentally, Sarawak was the 2016 host. At SUKMA 2016, Selangor topped the medal tally with 59 gold, 73 silver and 64 bronze. Perak was placed 12 out of the 15 participating states, including Brunei. Our home state won 12 gold, 26 silver and 34 bronze.
With only a few months left before the commencement of the games, media representatives were taken on a site visit of five sporting venues.
Aquatic Centre
The biggest on-going renovation taking place presently is the Ipoh City Council public pools. Renovations began in August 2016 and are scheduled to complete in February 2018. The centre is the venue for swimming, diving and water polo during the Games. Among the facilities available are a training pool, a recreational pool and two wading pools for kids.
Badminton and Squash Courts
Renovation works on the Ipoh City Council Badminton Centre began in January. They will be completed by year-end. As for the squash courts, work began in May and will be ready by February next year.
Shooting Range
Located in Chepor, the new Perak Shooting Range will be the main venue for all shooting events. Works on the range began in January. It has a 100m range, 50m range and an open range for clay-pigeon shooting. Hopefully, this state-of-the-art facility will, subsequently, be the venue for national and international shooting events on par with the Subang Shooting Range in Kuala Lumpur.
Perak Stadium
The Games opening and closing ceremonies will be held at Perak Stadium. It is also the venue for all athletics events – track and field. There is not much renovation done to the stadium except for the running tracks and some alterations to the public gallery and additional VIP rooms.
During the visit, State Secretary Dato’ Seri Abdul Puhat Mat Nayan, who is also Chairman of SUKMA XIX Core Committee, said that in total 29 sports will be contested. Besides Ipoh, other venues include Taiping, Teluk Intan, Manjung, Tronoh, Gerik and Mualim, to make it a real state-wide sporting carnival.
“In line with Menteri Besar’s mission to popularise sports among Perakeans, some sporting events will also be held at universities and schools. Netball at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjong Malim, basketball at SMJKC Poi Lam and archery at Universiti Teknologi Petronas, Tronoh, to name a few,” said Abdul Puhat.
During a meeting of the Perak Sports Council on November 9, Executive Councillor for Human Resources, Youth and Sports, Dato’ Shahrul Zaman Yahya clarified on rumours about Velodrome Rakyat, “The condition and status of the velodrome are being questioned. The project is directly under the purview of the Ministry of Sports. The viability of the velodrome is presently being certified by the International Cycling Union. Hopefully, it’ll be completed by December,” said Shahrul.
Velodrome Rakyat has successfully hosted some cycling competitions following repairs of its damaged timber track costing RM11 million.
Ili Aqilah
