KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 6 — The National Sports Council (MSN) has agreed to increase the number of athletes for swimming under the Podium Programme next year.
Malaysia Swimming Federation (MS) assistant secretary Nurul Huda Abdullah said currently, they only have four athletes in the Podium Programme, but NSC had, in principle, approved up to 10 athletes.
She said the athletes include Andrew Goh, Bryan Leong Xin Ren, Terence Ng, Jayden Tan, Low Zheng Yong, and Ong Yong Qi.
“in fact, a group of them are actually going to compete in Queensland (Australia) from December 9 to December 16. They will leave this afternoon, and it will be their last competition for 2023.
“We have actually planned quite several competitions for them to meet that qualification period next year. We hope many more podium athletes will qualify for the Olympics,” she told the press after the Sports Working Committee Meeting (JKK) at MSN today.
Meanwhile, Nurul said MS with MSN today discussed the long-term project in preparations towards the 2025 and 2027 SEA Games.
During the discussion, they proposed a foreign technical director, head coach and a coach, while for junior athletes, they are demanding one foreign coach and two local coaches, but this depends on the budget and the salary scheme which MSN offers.
“We were very fortunate to receive several applications from overseas, like the United States, Australia, and Europe. We are hoping to get the best coach we can with the highest budget that we can get.
“We also have the option on the table that, of course, for local coaches, we want to promote our local coaches, and we want to develop our local coaches. However, if we cannot get any local coaches, it will have to be foreign coaches, and we have already agreed this with NSC,” she said.
— Bernama
