PUTRAJAYA: A total of five non-core sports, including kabaddi and silambam, have secured their inclusion at next year's Sarawak Malaysia Games as well as the 2026 games.
The Malaysia Games Supreme Committee made the decision in a meeting chaired by Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh today on condition that they are able to register competitors from at least six states.
The three other sports given the greenlight are softball, cricket and chess.
The State Youth and Sports Exco coordination meeting was also held today. The Sarwawak games will be held in August next year.
"The entire Exco has accepted these five sports as they had all organised their national junior championships last year," said Yeoh.
"It is important they they are included for the next two cycles so there is continuity in their development.
"But for these sports to run, they must register (competitors from) at least six states in their events. Only then will their competitions be meaningful.
"Whoever wins can then truly be the national champion, which they would not be able to say if only one or two states competed.
"Thus the associations must play their part to ensure that these sports are popular at the state level (so they have enough participation)."
On a separate note, Yeoh disclosed that the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) have been asked to "look into" the weightlifting competition.
The weightlifting event at last year's Malaysia Games (held in Putrajaya) made headlines for the wrong reasons when Malaysia Weightlifting Federation (MWF) withdrew their technical officials in protest on the eve of the competition.
This was because the Malaysia Games Supreme Committee had allowed states that had registered positive test results during the pre-competition anti-doping screening to compete.
NSC officials were forced to fill in for MWF's technical officials. Subsequently, national records broken during the competition were not ratified by MWF.
"This was discussed in the meeting, a number of states had expressed their concern," said Yeoh.
"We have asked OCM to look into it."
Yeoh added that Sarawak were chosen to host the games as they already have the most of the infrastructure required to host the competition.
The Malaysia Games will be held across eight different divisions in the state — Kuching, Sri Aman Samarahan, Betong, Sibu, Mukah, Bintulu, Miri.
The track cycling event will, however, be held at the National Velodrome in Nilai as construction on Sarawak's own velodrome will only begin next year.