SELANGOR: Sarawak’s young athletes have continued to impress at SUKMA XXII, producing several podium finishes including a historic women’s 4x100m relay gold that ended a 40-year wait.
Sarawak athletics coach Lim Teck Leong said the squad had given its best throughout the Games, with several athletes recording personal bests from the opening day.
He said the relatively young squad provided encouragement for Sarawak’s future SUKMA campaigns, with many of the athletes still eligible to compete at the next edition.
“All the athletes already give their best. You can see the result, so many personal bests from the first day until today,” he said.
Lim also highlighted that Sarawak’s squad did not feature any national-level athletes this time, unlike previous SUKMA editions.
“This SUKMA is not like the last SUKMA, previous SUKMA. We don’t have any national athletes in our team this year,” he said.
One of the biggest highlights came in the women’s 4x100m relay, where Ormilla Octavia Codday Nyadau, Danea Humairah Sharyman Sufry, Alvinia Aivie Jackly and Syarifah Nur Alisya Syed Zafirna ended Sarawak’s 40-year wait for gold.
The quartet clocked 46.890 seconds at Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) Stadium on Monday, with Terengganu taking silver in 46.940s and Johor bronze in 47.240s.
Sarawak also claimed bronze in the women’s 100m through Alvinia Anne Jackly, who clocked 12.07s behind Terengganu’s Izzatul Musfirah Kamal Azira (11.72s) and Selangor’s Lim Mei Yin (11.96s).
Ormilla added another individual bronze in the women’s 400m, finishing behind gold medallist from Johor and silver medallist from Terengganu.
She later teamed up with Muhamad Irsyad Nabil Ismail, Theodosia Anak Razak and Yusry Mohammad Saiffullah to secure bronze in the mixed 4x400m relay in 3:33.36.
Earlier, Sarawak’s Jorez Puang Yi Jun and Hii Seng Yan also delivered a double podium finish in the men’s shot put, taking silver and bronze respectively with 14.94m and 13.94m.
