SLTA support promotion of wheelchair tennis

KUCHING: The Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) will render its full support to promote wheelchair tennis in the state.

SLTA president Dato Patrick Liew said yesterday that the association is very willing to assist the physically handicapped people (orang kurang upaya – OKU) to learn and play tennis.

“When Wheelchair Tennis Malaysia brought up this idea about seven or eight years ago to extend wheelchair tennis to Sarawak, SLTA was not ready to accept the idea as it was lacking facilities to accommodate the OKU.

Now that our facilities have improved over the years, we are now ready to extend a helping hand to develop wheelchair tennis here and we shall be working very closely with WTM and the Youth and Sports Department, Sarawak towards this aim,” said Liew after presenting the prizes to the winners of the inaugural Wheelchair Tennis Clinic and Competition at SLTA tennis centre.

He said SLTA would be making a few improvisations such as building ramps to make its tennis facilities more user-friendly to wheelchair tennis players.

“We can also provide the storage facility for their equipment and wheelchairs,” he added.

Liew hoped that wheelchair tennis can become a big thing in Sarawak with the support from the Youth and Sports Department, Sarawak in terms of financial support and expertise.

The department’s acting director Razali Mohamad hoped that more such clinic cum competition can be organised to increase the awareness of the OKU and the community on wheelchair tennis.

“We are also hoping that through this kind of programme that we can produce players who can represent the state at national competitions and even play for the country at international competitions,” he said.

He extended his gratitude to WTM for bringing in instructors and coaches to conduct the clinic cum competition for 14 participants in the two-day programme that ended yesterday.

“I can see from this competition there are one or two potential players who can be groomed to play in national meets and we are selecting four to five players for training,” added Razali.

He said the department will be contributing four wheelchairs for the purpose while WTM has sponsored four racquets and a bucket of soft balls and SLTA, the facilities for training.

Meanwhile, WTM assistant secretary Mohamad Roslan Jajuli said he was happy with the response to the programme and the enthusiasm of the participants.

“It is very fortunate that we have a solid organisation like SLTA to help us promote wheelchair tennis here,” he said.

He also proposed that SLTA accept OKU as its members so that they can enjoy the excellent tennis facilities at the tennis centre.

“I shall be submitting a report to our president Dato Zainal Mohd Ali and maybe we can plan to include Sarawak as a venue for one of the circuits of the Malaysian Open next year,” he said.

Roslan also thanked SLTA, the Youth and Sports Department, Sarawak, volunteers and all those who had in one way or another contributed to the success of the programme.

In the clinic cum competition, Roslan Sebli emerged the champion while Diau Tinggom finished second, Duin Kuini and Jap Sun Hung third and fourth respectively.

Other players Kian Tungku, Yusuf Dewa, Seman Sain, Jimmy Siang, Junaidi Fuzan, Elizabeth Alynis Sumor, Peter Wong, Ani Nios and Hasan Sup all received consolation prizes and a certificate of participation.

The prizes were in the form of hampers.- www.theborneopost.com