Rewards Exceeding Rm1 Mln Await National Para Athletes

SEPANG, June 10 (Bernama) -- A total reward of over RM1 million awaits the gold medal winners of the 2023 ASEAN Para Games (APG) under the Sports Victory Prize Scheme (SHAKAM).

Paralympic Council of Malaysia (PCM) secretary-general Datuk R. Subramaniam believes that the athletes will receive their respective rewards after fighting hard to bring honour to Malaysia.

"The reward is based on SHAKAM, I'm sure the government will fulfill whatever it promises, I don't see it as a problem even if we win 50 gold," he said when met at Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) Terminal 1 here today.

Through SHAKAM, the individual event gold winner will take home RM20,000 followed by RM10,000 for the second gold and so on.

For team events with less than five people, the winners will take home RM20,000 while team events with more than five people are eligible to receive RM5,000 each.

Earlier, the arrival of the national 2023 APG contingent was greeted by the Prime Minister's wife Datuk Seri Dr Wan Azizah Wan Ismail, Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh and family members of the athletes.

Meanwhile, the country's best athlete at 2023 APG Abd Halim Mohammad is the individual who will receive the highest reward after bagging five gold medals through swimming.

However, Abd Halim who made his second appearance at the biennial sports games did not think about the reward, instead he wanted to continue to focus on improving his performance and recording the  qualifying time to compete at the Hangzhou 2022 Para Asian Games followed by the Paris 2024 Paralympic Games.

"Whatever it is, the reward is considered a bonus, I liken it to a windfall, I feel very grateful," he said.

At the 2023 APG in Cambodia which came to a close yesterday, the achievement of 50 gold, 38 silver and 34 bronze saw Malaysia occupied the fourth place in the medal tally behind the champions, Indonesia followed by Thailand (second) and Vietnam third.

PCM had earlier announced the target of 33 gold, 51 silver and 58 bronze medals compared to the 36 gold, 20 silver and 14 bronze medals won in the last edition in Solo, Indonesia.

-- BERNAMA