Jaya '98 progressing well

18/07/1997

BACK in 1993, the National Sports Council (NSC) started their One-Sport-
One-State plan under the Jaya'98 project involving 14 States, the Armed
Forces and Police.
Under the One-Sport-One-State plan, States are supposed to place special
emphasis on the development of a particular sport and later help other
States set training centres and promote the sport.
The RM84-million Jaya '98 project was to help Malaysia prepare for the
1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games and Sarawak were told to adopt
swimming, diving and water polo.
Sarawak have not been a letdown ever since.
Last year at the National schools swimming meet held at the Malacca
Municipal Council pool in Bandar Hilir, Sarawak finished second with 23
gold, 25 silver and 22 bronze medals behind eventual champions Selangor.
This year, at the Stampark pool in Kuching on May 23-26, Sarawak
dethroned Selangor by finishing with 39 gold, 26 silver and 16 bronze.
Kuala Lumpur finished a distant second with 4-3-2 and Perak were third
with 4-2-3.
Sarawak swimmers also had a major hand in the 20 meet records shattered
at the meet.
Sarawak started the meet with a bang and won 10 gold, nine silver and
five bronze medals and cracked all the five records on opening day with
Kimberly Yap in the Under-12 category and distance specialist Dieung
Manggang among the most impressive.
Kimberly splashed home in 1:03.68 in the 100-metres freestyle to better
Elena Saw's old mark of 1:05.99.
In the 200m butterfly, Dieung won in a new time of 2:09.41 to crack
Anthony Ang's 2:16.90 set in 1993.
Another Sarawak swimmer, Darren Luke won three gold medals in the 100m
freestyle, 100m backstroke and the 200m butterfly.
In the 100m freestyle Luke cracked Lim Keng Liat's old mark of 57.79
when he romped home with 57.33.
The other first day meet records came from Sarawak's Dayang Tarliah
(1:12.38) in the girls' 100m backstroke and Emily Jong (9:55.26) in the
girls' 800m freestyle open.
At the end of the meet, two-time Malaysia Games 1,500m gold medallist
Dieung had six gold medals to show. During the final assault, he cracked
the 400m freestyle time with 4:15.50.
Sarawak also dominated the relay events. They set records in the boys'
Under-15 4x100m medley relay and the girls' Under-12 4x50m medley relay.
The one meet record which did not go to Sarawak went to Kuala Lumpur's
On Sin Ning who won the Under-12 breaststroke.
Luke won his seventh gold medal in the boys' Under-15 breaststroke to
reconfirm Sarawak's superiority.
In diving, Sarawak won three golds and Pahang took one in the three-
metre platform. Sarawak's golds came from Foo Ming Swan in the boys'
Under-12, Chang Chaw in the boys' Under-15 and Donna Top in the Girls'
Under-12.
(END)