KOTA BHARU: The Kelantan government will provide incentives to state athletes who succeeded in delivering medals at the Sarawak Malaysia Games (SUKMA) 2024.
State Youth, Sports, Non-Governmental Organisation (NGO) and Community Unity Committee chairman Zamakhshari Muhamad said the actual amount of incentive will be determined later after the state’s athletes return from SUKMA in the Land of the Hornbills.
He said in order to find out the exact amount of incentives for athletes, the government will seek approval in the meeting of the Board of Directors’ Committee (BOD) of the State Sport Council (MSN) that will be held later.
“The allocation will be issued through MSN after the matter has been discussed and approved by BOD,“ he told Bernama today.
Zamakhshari said that although the amount of the incentive was not high, it would be given as encouragement and honour to celebrate the athletes who successfully won medals and brought glory to Kelantan.
According to him, the state government so far plans to provide incentives in the form of money, but as soon as there are encouraging achievements for certain cases, incentives such as land or houses will be considered depending on eligibility.
“For example, if an athlete has a good reason and is poor including not having a house, the state government can consider a house like Dhuafa’s house but it depends on the current allocation,“ he said.
Zamakhshari hopes that the Kelantan athletes who participated in SUKMA Sarawak can achieve the target or more in terms of the highest position in the prestigious games.
“The Kelantan government prays that the athletes do their best to raise the name of the state and believe in efforts, prayers and trust,“ he said.
Kelantan is sending 400 athletes to participate in 30 contested sports events and aim to collect 56 medals involving 20 gold, 10 silver and 26 bronze medals at the biennial sports event.
SUKMA 2024 is seeing 37 types of sports contested involving 488 events consisting of 236 men’s events, 217 women’s events and another 35 mixed men’s and women’s events, to be held in nine divisions namely in Kuching, Samarahan, Serian, Sri Aman, Betong, Sibu, Mukah, Bintulu and Miri.
