KUCHING: More than 450 members of the Sarawak contingent will travel on AirBorneo services for the 22nd Malaysia Games (SUKMA XXII) in Selangor from Aug 15 to 24.
The movement will involve athletes, coaches, team managers, accompanying officers, secretariat personnel, and members of the Sarawak sports media representing some 24 sports.
The first substantial movement of the contingent began today (Aug 12) when about 60 athletes and officials departed from Kuching International Airport for Kuala Lumpur on AirBorneo flight MY5005.
The group comprised athletes and team officials from the men’s and women’s kabaddi teams, judo, and rhythmic gymnastics, as well as accompanying officers from the Sarawak Sports Council and members of the Sarawak sports media.
They were flagged off at the airport in a ceremony officiated by Youth, Sports and Entrepreneur Development Minister Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.
AirBorneo chief executive officer Megat Ardian Aminuddin said transporting the state contingent reflected the role of the airline’s Kuching-Kuala Lumpur service in providing connectivity between Sarawak and the national capital.
“Sarawak’s athletes carry the state’s name onto the national stage, and it is a privilege for AirBorneo to carry them there.
“Our Kuching-Kuala Lumpur service was launched to give Sarawakians direct, reliable access to the national capital.
“Moving a contingent of this size, across this many sports and this many travel dates, is exactly the kind of work that service exists to do.”
Megat Ardian said AirBorneo had also been working with the Sarawak Sports Council and the contingent secretariat in recent weeks to coordinate travel arrangements in line with the athletes’ respective competition schedules.
“We worked closely with the Sarawak Sports Council and the contingent secretariat over recent weeks to sequence bookings around competition schedules.”
He added that arrangements had also been made for the transportation of team equipment, including sporting apparatus requiring special handling.
Throughout the SUKMA period, AirBorneo will transport members of the Sarawak contingent involved in sports including swimming, diving, water polo, archery, badminton, basketball, boxing, chess, e-sports, fencing, and futsal.
Other sports include gymnastics, judo, kabaddi, lawn bowls, muay thai, pencak silat, sepak takraw, silambam, squash, table tennis, weightlifting, and wushu.
