2016 Sukma Games

18th Sukma Games

Host city	Sarawak
Motto	Perpaduan dalam Kepelbagaian (Unity in Diversity)
Teams participating	15
Athletes participating	5670
Events	382 in 24 sports
Opening ceremony	23 July 2016
Closing ceremony	31 July 2016
Officially opened by	Abdul Taib Mahmud Yang di-Pertua Negeri of Sarawak
Officially closed by	Ahmad Zahid Hamidi Deputy Prime Minister of Malaysia
Main venue	Sarawak Stadium, Petra Jaya
Website	2016 Sukma Games
<  2013-2014 2018  >

The 2016 Sukma Games, officially known as the 18th Sukma Games was a multi-sport event held in Kuching, Samarahan, Miri and Sibu in Sarawak, two months after the 2016 Sarawak state election from 23 July 2016 to 31 July 2016 with 382 events in 24 sports and disciplines featured in the games although several events had commenced from 19 July 2016. This was Sarawak's second time to host the Sukma Games, and its first time since 1990. A total of 5670 athletes from 13 states, Federal Territory and Brunei participated in the games.

Sarawak is the first state to host the Sukma Games, after Kuala Lumpur and before Johor, Perak, Pahang, Selangor, Penang, Sabah, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah, Terengganu, Malacca and Perlis and the ninth in the 21st Century after Penang, Sabah, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah, Terengganu, Malacca, Pahang and Perlis.

The final medal tally was led by Selangor, followed by host Sarawak and Terengganu. 6 national and 67 games records were broken during the games. Malaccan sprinter Khairul Hafiz Jantan and Terengganuan archer Nur Aqilah Yusof were announced as best sportsman and best sportswoman of the games respectively. With little or no controversy at all, the Games were deemed generally successful with the rising standard of competition amongst the Malaysian states.

Organisation

Host city

Sarawak as the host of the 2016 Sukma Games

This is the 18th edition of Sukma Games since its introduction in 1986. It will be the second time the state held such a national sporting event. All states held their respective Sukma Games except for Kelantan. Prior to this games, Sarawak had hosted the 1990 Sukma Games where it emerged as overall champion.

Before this, the optional sports games under the Annual Games System, was scheduled to be hosted by Kuala Lumpur and known to public as the 2015 Sukma Games. It was a proposed major Malaysian multi-sport event due to be celebrated in the tradition of the Sukma Games under the said system, as governed by the National Sport Council of Malaysia. The games is expected to be held in May 2015 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. It would have been the fifth time Kuala Lumpur host the event and its first time since 2013.^[1] In February 2015, the sports minister announced that the games has been cancelled.^[2][3]

Development and preparation

The Sarawak Sukma Games Organising Committee, led by Tan Sri Mohd Morshidi Abdul Ghani and Deputy Minister for Sports Datuk Lee Kim Shin and a secretariat of eight officials were formed to oversee the staging of the event.

Venues

Sarawak Stadium, venue of the athletics and the opening and closing ceremonies for the 18th Sukma Games

Opening ceremony of SUKMA Games Village at UNIMAS

The 2016 Sukma Games used a mix of new and existing venues. Most venues were existing public-sporting facilities, while others were newly constructed venues. Some retrofitting work were done in venues which are more than a decade old. They were reverted to public use after the games. Some had been used to host multi-disciplinary events such as the 1990 Sukma Games. Sarawak hosting the 2016 Sukma Games, want to make the games the biggest ever in history of hosting Sukma Games and the state had spent RM400mil to build six new stadiums and sport centers for the 2016 Sukma Games.^[4][5][6]

At the centrepiece of the activities was the upgraded Petra Jaya Sports Complex. Incorporating the 40,000-seat Sarawak Stadium, it hosts most of the events. A games village was not built, instead athletes and officials were housed in Universities across Sarawak such as Universiti Malaysia Sarawak which was chosen to be the official games village. Besides being physically near to the competition venues, it was hoped that it will add vibe to the host cities and reduce post-games costs in converting a dedicated games village to other uses.

The 18th Sukma Games had 23 venues for the games: 16 in Kuching, 3 in Samarahan, 2 each in Miri and Sibu respectively.

Volunteers

The organisers estimated that about 4,000 volunteers between the age of 18 and 60 are needed to successfully host the games.^[8]

Countdown

During the closing ceremony of the 2014 Sukma Games, the Sukma Games Flag was formally handed over to Sarawak from Perlis. This was followed by a song and dance section highlighting Sarawak as the next venue.

The countdown to the games began on 22 July 2015 at the Baitul Makmur in Petra Jaya, Kuching during the press conference of the games to mark the one year countdown to the games.^[9] A launch party was held on 20 October 2015 at the Meritz Hotel in Miri in conjunction with the 2013 and 2014 Sarawak state sports awards where the logo, theme and mascots were introduced.^[10] Begin December 2015, Pre-Games tournaments were held across Sarawak for Sukma Games sports events.

Torch relay

A torch relay was held statewide, began with the town of Lawas on 13 February 2016 at 9 am (MST), passed through several cities in Sarawak and ends in Bau, Lundu and Sematan on 17 April 2016.^[11]

Public transport

Shuttle bus services, Rapid KL Buses were provided throughout the games and were used to ferry athletes and officials to and from the airport, games venues and games village.^[12]

Marketing

Logo and mascot

'Satria' and 'Satrina', the official mascot.

The logo of the 2016 Sukma Games is a hornbill, the state bird of Sarawak. The hornbill serves as the symbol for Sarawak's state identity and represents Sarawak as host of the Sukma Games and the sports activity held at the games. The element of the sun represents the athlete's speed and agility. Its big letters S and U represent the Sukma Games. The colours of the flag of Sarawak are the choice colour for this logo design to represent the promotion of patriotism through sports.^[13]

The official mascots of the 2016 Sukma Games is a pair of hornbills named Satria (male) and Satrina (female) respectively. It is said that Sarawak is known by many as "Bumi Kenyalang" or the "Land of the Hornbills". The mascots were designed in 3D to give them a more realistic appeal. Designers of the mascot costume took into account the ergonomics of the mascot as to not bring discomfort to the wearer. The mascots wears the Sarawak flag and all in all symbolizes the state of Sarawak. These mascots were designed by Amir Hassan Mohd Shah,^[14] and are the third Sukma Games mascots in history to depict both male and female mascots after 2000 Sukma Games and 2012 Sukma Games.

Songs

The theme song of the games is "Berpadu Menyahut Cabaran" (United In Facing Challenges).

The games

Opening ceremony

Opening Ceremony.

The opening ceremony was held on Saturday, 23 July 2016, beginning at 20:30 MST (UTC+8) at the Sarawak Stadium. The ceremony began with Yang di-Pertua Negeri Abdul Taib Mahmud and his wife, Toh Puan Raghad Kurdi Taib entered the stadium in a buggy car and the playing of the national anthem of Malaysia and the state anthem of Sarawak. This was followed by a countdown performance, an opener performance combining light dance, laser projection technology and firework display with the theme beautiful Sarawak and Sarawak Sukma Games. Later, a parade of athletes led by the games volunteers was held, began with the invitational contingent, Brunei, followed by all the states of Malaysia with host Sarawak enters the stadium last. After sports minister Khairy Jamaluddin and Chief Minister Adenan Satem gave their respective speech, a baton relay by Sarawak famous athletes was held began with Ramli Ahmad of Pencak silat, Wong Tee Kui of athletics , Sapok Biki of boxing, Edmund Yeo of weightlifting, Mohamad Azlan Iskandar of squash, Daniel Bego of swimming, Bryan Nickson Lomas of diving, Assri Azri Marzuki of tennis, Watson Nyambek of athletics and Tania Bugo of swimming. After Abdul Taib Mahmud declared the games opened, Watson and Tania placed the baton on the para to lit up the cauldron. After the cauldron was lit, the games flag was raised by Royal Malaysian navy personnel, followed by Bon Yusuf performing the games' theme song, Berpadu Menyahut Cabaran accompanied by violinist, Nisa Addina Mohd Taufik. This was followed by pledge recitation and dance perfornance by Kuching students with the theme "Unity in Diversity". The ceremony ended with a musical firework performance for 7 minutes.^{[15][16][17][18][19]}

Closing ceremony

Closing Ceremony.

The closing ceremony was held on Sunday, 31 July 2016, beginning at 20:30 MST (UTC+8) at the Sarawak Stadium. The ceremony begins with volunteers leading the athletes enter the stadium began with the invitational contingent, Brunei, followed by all the states of Malaysia with host Sarawak enters the stadium last. This was followed by the arrival of guests including Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, Khairy Jamaluddin and Adenan Satem, the playing of the national anthem of Malaysia and the state anthem of Sarawak. After a series of performance and Khairy gave his speech, Ahmad Zahid Hamidi gave his speech and declared the games closed. Later, Khairul Hafiz Jantan of athletics from Malacca and Nur Aqilah of archery from Terengganu were announced as best sportsman and best sportswoman respectively. Selangor was also announced as the overall champion of the games, beating host Sarawak. After the games flag lowered by Royal Malaysian Navy personnel and the cauldron extinguished, the Sukma Games responsibility was handed over to Perak, host of the 2018 Sukma Games where Zambry Abdul Kadir received the games flag as its symbolisation. A Perak segment performance was later performed by Perak dancers. Perak later also hosted the 2018 Malaysia Para Games. The ceremony concludes with a series of cultural dances and firework performance.^{[20][21][22][23]}

Participating states

An estimated total of 5670 athletes from 13 states, Federal Territory and Brunei competed at the 2016 Sukma Games. The number of athletes competed for each state is shown in parenthesis.^[16]

Sports

The Sarawak Sukma Games Organising Committee had confirmed a total of 24 sports for the 2016 Sukma Games. The announcement took place after the sports were endorsed at the games countdown in Baitul Makmur, Petra Jaya.

Calendar

OC

Opening ceremony

●

Event competitions

1

Gold medals

CC

Closing ceremony

July	19 Tue	20 Wed	21 Thu	22 Fri	23 Sat	24 Sun	25 Mon	26 Tue	27 Wed	28 Thu	29 Fri	30 Sat	31 Sun	Gold medals
Ceremonies					OC								CC
Archery						8	8	2	2	2	2			24
Athletics								6	14	12	13			45
Badminton		●	●	●	●	2	●	●	●	5				7
Bowling						2	2	1	●	2	2	2		11
Boxing					●	●	●	●	●	●	●	9		9
Cycling		2	2	2	2	2	2	2		2	2	2		20
Diving					2	3	2	2	1					10
Football	●	●	●	●	●	●		●		●		1		1
Golf								●	●	4				4
Gymnastics		1	4							2	2	10		19
Field hockey		●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●		●	2		2
Karate	5	5	6											16
Lawn bowls		●	●	●		●	4	●	●	●	●	4		8
Pencak silat							●	●	8	●	18			26
Petanque						●	2	2	●	4	●	3		11
Sailing							●	●	●	●	12			12
Sepak takraw					●	●	●	2	●	●	●	4		6
Shooting							4	6	6	6	4			26
Squash					●	●	4	●	●	3				7
Swimming					8	8	7	8	7					38
Taekwondo	3	6	6	4										19
Tennis				●	●	●	2	●	●	●	2	3		7
Volleyball		●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	●	2			2
Weightlifting				4		4	4	4	4	4	4	4		32
Wushu					6	8	6							20
Total gold medals	8	14	18	10	18	37	47	35	42	46	63	44	0	382
Cumulative total	8	22	40	50	68	105	152	187	229	275	338	382	382
July	19 Tue	20 Wed	21 Thu	22 Fri	23 Sat	24 Sun	25 Mon	26 Tue	27 Wed	28 Thu	29 Fri	30 Sat	31 Sun	Gold medals

Medal table

A total of 1238 medals comprising 385 gold medals, 380 silver medals and 473 bronze medals were awarded to athletes. The host Sarawak's performance was their best ever yet and were placed second only to Selangor as overall champion.^[24]

Key

  *   Host state (Sarawak)

2016 Sukma Games medal table

Rank	State	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Selangor (SEL)	59	73	64	196
2	Sarawak (SAR)*	57	43	59	159
3	Terengganu (TER)	47	42	44	133
4	Federal Territory (WIL)	40	44	42	126
5	Pahang (PAH)	30	25	21	76
6	Penang (PEN)	26	12	29	67
7	Sabah (SAB)	25	37	37	99
8	Johor (JOH)	19	25	31	75
9	Negeri Sembilan (NSE)	19	12	30	61
10	Malacca (MEL)	18	11	28	57
11	Kedah (KED)	14	10	23	47
12	Perak (PRK)	12	26	34	72
13	Kelantan (KEL)	10	12	13	35
14	Perlis (PER)	9	7	15	31
15	Brunei (BRU)	0	1	3	4
Total (15 States)		385	380	473	1238

Broadcasting

Radio Televisyen Malaysia was responsible for live streaming of several events, opening and closing ceremony of the games.

See also

• 2016 Malaysia Para Games
• 2016 Malaysia Deaf Games

References

External links

• 2016 Sukma Games Official Website
• 2016 Sukma Games Facebook Page
• Sarawak host 2016 Sukma Games
• 2016 Sukma Games Information Site