16th SUKMA closing ceremony held on moderate scale

The closing ceremony of the 16th edition of the Malaysia Games (Sukma) was held on a moderate scale at the Bukit Jalil Mini Stadium here tonight.

The ceremony, attended by about 5,000 athletes and officials from 14 contingents, was closed by Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar.

Two artistic gymnastics athletes, Daniel Iskandar Richard (Selangor) and Esmelda Arecia Menti Alfred Giling (Sarawak), were named Best Male Athlete and Best Female Athlete and each received a trophy and cash of RM1,000.

Daniel Iskandar, 19, bagged three gold medals in the team, individual all-around and pommel horse events, and two silver medals in the vault and horizontal bar events.

Esmelda Arecia Menti, 13, on the other hand, bagged two gold medals through the vault and balance beam events, three silver medal in the team, uneven bars and floor exercise events, and a bronze medal in the individual all-round.

Khairy Jamaluddin also presented the overall champion's trophy to Selangor chef-de-mission Dr Ahmad Yunus Hairi after the contingent clinched 23 gold, 17 silver and 30 bronze medals.

It was the eighth overall champion title for Selangor.

The minister also handed over the Sukma's flag to Perlis Menteri Besar, Azlan Man, as the state would be hosting the 17th edition of the games next year.

In this year's edition, the National Sports Council, as the organiser, had listed two new sports categorised as non-optional, namely muay thai and woodball, and introduced a new sport, beach soccer, to be contested among the 20 sports included for the games, such as aquatic sports (water polo, synchronised swimming), body building, netball, basketball, football, volleyball (beach and indoor volleyball), equestrian, judo, kabaddi, cricket, gymnastics, fencing, silambam and softball.

In his speech, Khairy Jamaluddin said this year's games differed from the previous ones as the medal tally was not dominated by certain contingents.

"Many outstanding results were produced in this year's edition, but we shouldn't be too quick to be satisfied because there are more rooms for improvement," he added.