PUTRAJAYA, June 9 — The sports fraternity has been rocked with news of the president of the Malaysia Canoe Association (Masca) Datuk Michael Wong tendering his resignation with immediate effect, citing unfair treatment in the selection of athletes for the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
Wong said he is disappointed with the negative approach towards the association in the selection of athletes for the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China scheduled from September 23 to October 8.
Claiming that he has been upset with the turn of events in the selection process for some time now, he added the final straw that prompted him to make such a decision was the outcome of the Olympic Council of Malaysia’s (OCM) Pre-Selection of Athletes and Officials meeting in Kuala Lumpur, for the Asian Games in Hangzhou.
Wong said during the meeting, it was quite clear the National Traditional Boat Race was denied an opportunity to participate in the Games.
Although the National squad had met the Category B criteria to participate in Hangzhou, the OCM had informed Masca that only athletes who qualified under Category A would be sent to participate in the Games, as per a directive from the ‘top’, after the Malaysian contingent’s poor performance at the recent 2023 Cambodia SEA Games.
“I made such a decision (to resign) because as many are already aware that I was disappointed with what has been happening for the past five years. Nothing has changed,” he told reporters at the Putrajaya Lake Club, earlier today.
Wong said during OCM’s pre-selection meeting, ‘suddenly new categories were introduced, namely B+, B1 and B2’, thus providing an opportunity for sports that are not under Category A to participate in the Asian Games in Hangzhou but not Traditional Boat Race.
He claimed that after all these years as Masca president, he has never come across or heard of or informed of any new categories, save for Categories A and B.
“What irked me most was that only during the meeting, we were informed about Categories B+, B1 and B2. I have no intention of disrupting the harmony of the sports fraternity but the OCM’s demand that we qualify under Category A does not seem fair,” Wong said.
He is also upset with the OCM’s action to give the association only 10 days (until June 20) to ensure the National Traditional Boat Race squad participated in international competitions to register for a better position and qualify under Category A for the Asian Games, as it does not make sense.
Category A enables individual athletes and teams ranked among the top four in Asia to qualify while those ranked among the top eight can be considered to be given an opportunity to participate under Category B.
For the record, Malaysia ended a 30-year wait for a medal in Traditional Boat Race in the SEA Games history by winning a silver medal at the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games through the men’s 250m 12 crew open category.
— Bernama
