KUCHING: At least 3,000 volunteers are required at the Sarawak Sukma XVIII to be held in Kuching, Sibu and Miri from July 22 to 31 next year.
Assistant Minister for Sports Datuk Lee Kim Shin said all in, 3,000 to 4,000 volunteers, including technical officials, would be needed to help run the national games.
Speaking at a press conference here yesterday, he said registration for volunteers would be done online as soon as the official website was launched at a later date.
“We need a lot of volunteers as well as technical officials. Once registered with us, we will train those technical officials,” he said after Minister of Social Development Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom launched the countdown to Sukma XVIII at Baitul Makmur in Petra Jaya yesterday.
Lee pointed out that the training for Sarawak’s athletes had gone into “full swing” with the state now working out exposure programmes for some sports.
He said he handed over the state colours to eight wushu athletes on Thursday night for them to be sent to China for a one-month training stint.
“And we are also working on other programmes as well. As far as our athletes are concerned, we have been preparing since last year, immediately after the last Sukma.
“We have conducted a number of training programmes for not only athletes but also coaches and sports associations for better sports management. We are working hard to upgrade our coaches and the standard of coaching. We also want our sports organisations to upgrade their management skills to see enhanced efficiency and effectiveness.”
He acknowledged it was not easy for sports organisations to do upgrade given that they were run by volunteers.
“There are some constraints, but we hope that we will be able to get more sport leaders for these associations.”
He also thanked the National Sports Institute for conducting a number of training courses for the state’s sports associations and coaches.