Kuching association want Tang Soo Do to be included in Sukma 2016

March 22, 2014

KUCHING: The Kuching Tang Soo Do Association will be leading the push for Tang Soo Do to be considered for inclusion into Sukma in 2016.

Assistant Youth Development Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah said yesterday that he is very supportive of the move.

He urged the association to come up with a comprehensive proposal to be presented to the State government for serious consideration.

“The State government is interested to adopt a new sport such as Tang Soo Do, which has very good medals prospect, into Sukma 2016,” Karim said when receiving a courtesy call from the association.

“I believe the combative sport has great potential considering its achievements in the state and national level in which numerous annual competitions have been organised,” he elaborated.

Karim, also Assistant Housing Minister, was optimistic that Tang Soo Do, which is a popular martial arts sport all over the country, can be included into Sukma.

“It has a lot of potential as we know that the exponents from Sarawak have attained good results in tournaments. Sarawak will have a good chance of winning medals,” he added.

The association’s president, who is also president of Federation of Malaysia Tang Soo Do (Fomtsdo), Harold Teo pointed out that Sarawak was performing exceptionally well in the sport.

“Sarawak obtained 17 gold, 16 silver and 8 bronze medals in the last Fomtsdo National Championship held in Selangor from Dec 14-15 last year,” he stressed.

“There are six states in Malaysia currently affiliated with Fomtsdo including Sarawak, Wilayah Persekutuan, Perak, Selangor, Kelantan and Melaka,” he said.

At present, Sarawak has about 450 members.

Karim assured that he will bring up the matter for further discussion with Social Development Minister Tan Sri William Mawan Ikom and Assistant Sports Minister Datuk Lee Kim Shin.

“I have actually spoken with Datuk Lee about this and we need to see more details about the achievements and development before taking a step forward,” he said.

“But I am positive it can be pushed forward and we can further develop Tang Soo Do to progress to the internationally recognised sports arenas such as the Olympics,” he added.

Karim also advised sports associations to put in more efforts in growing and developing profile of their sports as well as to further promote and improve the popularity of the sports.