‘Covid situation means snooker fraternity unlikely to pick up cues this year’

Mark Yeo

SIBU (Sept 3): Swan City Recreation Club Sibu (SCRCS) president Mark Yeo believes the current Covid-19 situation in the state means there will not be any snooker activities carried out in the state this year.

He said with the number of daily Covid-19 cases hitting four digits, there is every reason to stop all sporting activities from being conducted.

“Of course it would be good to develop the snooker programme but since there are more important things in life todo now, we should pay more attention and focus more on flattening the curve of Covid-19 pandemic so that we can get back to normal live soonest,” he told The Borneo Post here yesterday.

Although Sibu is in Phase 3 of the National Recovery Plan, snooker, unlike other sporting activities, is still disallowed as it galls under the entertainment category.

Yeo said snooker players cannot do anything except wait for the Health Ministry and National Security Council to give the green light for the sport to proceed.

“We know that all the snooker players are raring to go for competitions as it has been about a year since the last time they held their cues,” he said.

The last time a competitive tournament was held here was the 8th Swan City Snooker Championship hosted by Southern Point City Snooker Salon in November last year.

The 9th edition was supposed to be held in April but the event was called off when the Covid-19 pandemic here worsened due to the Pasai Cluster which to date remains the biggest cluster in Sarawak, infecting over 2,000 people.

With the Covid-19 vaccination rate in Sarawak progressing very well, Yeo still harbours some hope that snooker activities will be allowed once herd immunity is achieved by the end of October.

He also expressed hope that when the government prepares the new set of standard operating procedures (SOP) to guide the public on living with Covid-19 when the virus is expected to become endemic by the end of next month, it would also benefit the sporting fraternity, including snooker.

“All the stakeholders in the snooker fraternity also need to survive and we truly hope that whatever guidelines taken will also take our interests into consideration,” said Yeo.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had been reported as saying that discussions are being done to draft these fresh and less complicated SOPs, which would make it easier to the public to understand and practise.

from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/38CpwFe
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