Sarawak is looking into investing in sports psychology to ensure its new generation of athletes is well-equipped to face the stresses of high-level competition, said Minister of Youth, Sport and Entrepreneur Development Dato Sri Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah.

He said the Sarawak government has always placed the main objective of making the state into a sports powerhouse in Malaysia as one of its top sporting priorities.

“Putting emphasis on sport psychology in our development is one of the areas which can help us achieve that target,” he said at the opening ceremony of the 9th Asian South Pacific Association of Sport Psychology (ASPASP) International Congress at the Borneo Convention Centre Kuching (BCCK) here yesterday.

The minister revealed that the state government’s support in organising the congress is a small step towards achieving these objectives.

“I am therefore hopeful that future Sarawakian athletes will benefit from the effective exchange of knowledge in this congress.

“This knowledge can also be shared with younger athletes in the age-group competition levels by their coaches, so that they will have strong psychological fundamentals to develop from,” he added.

The international congress, which is taking place from Aug 9 to 11, aims to provide avenues to establish collaborative networking within the sport psychology community across the various Asia Pacific regions.

It also intends to enhance the role of sport psychology in fulfilling the needs and demands of athletes and non-athletes in order for them to be successful competitively.

The congress is attended by 143 foreign and 74 local presenters and delegates, as well as 127 undergraduate students from UiTM Sarawak, Institute of Teacher Education Tun Abdul Razak Campus and Institute of Teacher Education Batu Lintang Campus.

The local presenters are from universities and institutions in Sarawak, Sabah and Peninsular Malaysia while the foreign presenters are from universities and institutions from China, Korea, Taiwan, Thailand, Japan, Taiwan and India.

Also present during the opening ceremony were UiTM Sarawak rector Dato Jamil Hamali, Sarawak State Sports Corporation chief executive officer Morshidi Fredrick and othe officials.

Source:
courtesy of THE BORNEO POST

by MATTHEW UMPANG

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