JOHOR BAHRU – The Malaysian Weightlifting Federation (MWF) have urged the National Sports Council (NSC) to consider the inclusion of all 20 categories in weightlifting to be contested at the Malaysia Games (Sukma) 2022 in September.
MWF president Datuk Ayub Rahmat said this was because they were informed that only 10 categories would be contested at the Malaysia Games, to be known as ‘Sukma XX, NSC 2022’.
He said that for the past few years, all the states have been preparing their athletes to compete in all 20 categories, including bearing the training costs and searching for new talent, adding that if certain categories were not included, then all their efforts would be wasted.
“The MWF would like to appeal to the NSC director-general (Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail) to reconsider having all the categories be contested, with a minimum of five athletes (five states) for each category compared to eight athletes (states) as decided by the NSC.
“As such, it is hoped that the NSC will accept our appeal and take it to the Malaysia Games supreme council for discussion,” he said in a statement today.
Ayub said weightlifting was among the sports that frequently contributed medals for the country in international competitions, especially in the Commonwealth Games and SEA Games.
“Sukma is a stage for unearthing and developing new and young talent so that they can be polished and honed to bring glory to the country,” he said. – Bernama, May 16, 2022