SHAH ALAM: A total of 109 events in seven sports will be contested in the 2023 Sukan Selangor (SUKSES) that begins tomorrow till Nov 19.
Youth, Sports and Entrepreneurship Committee chairman Mohd Najwan Halimi (pix) said Hulu Langat district was chosen as the host for the 14th edition of the biennial games, with athletics, pencak silat, lawn bowling, table tennis, petanque, sepak takraw and cycling being the sports contested.
“A total of 377 medals are up for grabs at this edition of the games, with around 1,500 Under-21 athletes, most of them university and secondary school students in Selangor competing for them.
“The Petaling contingent are defending champions of the 2019 edition, and all nine districts will be participating for the chance to be champion,” he told reporters at a media conference here today.
Mohd Najwan said athletes selected to represent their district was done under the district sports council programme, and based on merits, and competitors will be absorbed to represent the state for the 2024 Malaysia Games (Sukma).
On the sports being contested, Mohd Najwan said it was limited as development programes after the Covid-19 pandemic were slow and there were not many championships for the sports to be contested at the national or international levels.
“So we want to try to unearth athletes at the district level as these sports are not well-contested. So we test by allowing them to compete amongst themselves,” he said.
SUKSES is a grassroots sports development effort at all districts, and the games have becomes a way to benchmark ahtletes being trained under district level sports development programmes. –Bernama
