SHAH ALAM, Nov 10 — The Selangor State Sports Council (MSNS) will be reviewing the state athletes’ training programmes following the cancellation of the Malaysia Games (Sukma) scheduled to take place in Johor next year.
MSNS executive director Mohamad Nizam Marjugi said the move is to enable athletes to make the necessary preparations for the upcoming tournament.
“We accept the decision made by the Youth and Sports Ministry (KBS) to cancel the Sukma and Para Sukma due to the current Covid-19 situation that is increasingly worrying.
“Therefore, MSN Selangor will review the sports programmes, especially now that it has been set that Johor will be hosting the event in 2022. We just don’t know the exact date or the age limit of the participants,” he said when contacted.
Yesterday, KBS had decided to call off the biennial national multi-sport event after receiving suggestions from the Johor state government and the Johor Sukma Secretariat.
Johor, however, has been offered to host the Games in 2022 as the state is almost 99 per cent prepared in terms of planning, management, technical and amenities.
Regarding incurred losses following the cancellation, Mohamad Nizam said his management does not face any problems even though they have sent the cycling athletes to undergo training at the National Velodrome track in Nilai, Negeri Sembilan.
He said all the athletes have been instructed to return home after the second conditional movement control order (CMCO) was enforced on October 28 to cut down accommodation costs.
“The tracks are charged per usage and the accommodations based on daily rate but we have asked them to return home because the CMCO has been extended.
“If it is daily training, we will surely use the velodrome because it is the nearest (to the athletes), plus the training allocation has been prepared except for additional costs such as for face masks and sanitizers,” he said.
