SUKMA Selangor 2026 Creates Records, Produces New National Stars
KUALA LUMPUR: The Selangor 2026 Malaysia Games (SUKMA) concluded with various interesting achievements, particularly in terms of athlete performance improvement, when a number of Games and national records were successfully renewed throughout 10 days of competition.
The 22nd edition, which took place from August 15 to 24, saw participation from athletes from all over the country in 37 sports and 368 events, thus becoming an important platform to assess the development of the country’s young talent.
Athletics emerged as the most outstanding sport, with several old records being erased.
Among the prominent winners was Johor sprinter, Danish Iftikhar Muhammad Roslee, who broke the Games record in the men’s 200 metres (m) event with a time of 20.85 seconds (s), as well as contributing to the Johor quartet’s victory in the men’s 4x100m and dominating the 100m.
That performance completed a haul of three gold medals and made him among the most outstanding sprint stars at SUKMA Selangor.
In addition, several other records were also renewed in events such as the men’s 110m hurdles, women’s shot put, women’s 10,000m, women’s 20,000m walk as well as the men’s 4x100m.
In the swimming pool, Eliza Tan Ai Shen from Selangor broke the national record in the women’s 100m freestyle twice before clocking a new record of 56.78s.
That time also saw her emerge as the first Malaysian female swimmer to clock under 57 seconds in the event, besides winning the women’s 200m freestyle gold with a time of 2:05.26s.
Eliza also renewed the Games records in the 50m freestyle, 4x100m freestyle, 4x200m freestyle and 4x100m medley events, thus being crowned as the Best Female Athlete of SUKMA 2026.
Pahang shooter, Cheah Zen Hong, who won nine gold medals and one silver, besides breaking two Games records in the 10m Air Pistol and 25m Sport Pistol events, confirmed his prowess to emerge as the Best Male Athlete of SUKMA 2026.
The track cycling event also contributed another significant moment when the Terengganu women’s quartet renewed the national record for the team pursuit event with a time of 4:42.878s.
Their time was improved in the qualifying round (4:46.824s) before producing a faster time in the final, thus proving a significant improvement in the performance level of national track cycling athletes.
If Games records are seen as a measure of performance improvement at the SUKMA level, breaking national records provides a bigger picture of the athletes’ potential to step up to higher stages.
These achievements show a positive development of young talent at the state level, thus giving a good indication of their ability to carry Malaysia’s challenges at the SEA Games, Asian Games and international championships.
Goodbye Selangor, see you in Kelantan in 2028.
BERNAMA