KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — The Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) and the National Sports Council (MSN) need to make the best plans in evaluating the sports that have the potential to contribute more medals to the Malaysian contingent in any Games they participate in, said Senator Datuk Mohd Hisamudin Yahaya.
He said the approach that needs to be taken includes increasing financial allocations as well as sending athletes with the potential to win medals to participate in training abroad, in addition to devising a better training programme for them.
“This will help the national contingent in terms of medal collection.
“However, the focus on ‘gold mine’ events such as athletics and swimming does not mean that the agencies responsible for improving the quality of these sports should marginalise other sports that also have the potential to contribute gold medals to the country,” Mohd Hisamudin said in a statement today.
Sports associations in this country also need to provide accurate information to KBS, MSN and also the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) to avoid the targets set for any meets being ‘feel good’ factors but failing to be realised by the athletes.
“The lack of accurate information risks causing the target set for the national contingent to fail to be realised as what happened at the Cambodia 2023 SEA Games when Malaysia brought home 34 gold medals compared to the targeted 40,” he said.
At the same time, Mohd Hisamudinsaid the failure at the Cambodian SEA Games should not be placed entirely on the shoulders of Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh and her deputy Adam Adli Abdul Halim, but instead, all parties should take responsibility including the leaders of sports associations.
“The targets set by the sports associations need to be realistic with the abilities of each athlete and not just for ‘wow’ factor but struggle to fulfil what is set when entering competitions and subsequently affect the image of the country,” he said.
— Bernama
