KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — Hundreds of visitors thronged the grounds of Raintree Plaza TRX near TRX Exchange shopping centre on the first day of the Olympic Day 2024 carnival here today.
Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary-general Datuk Nazifuddin Najib said the celebration was being held in the capital city for the first time after being hosted at several other locations previously, including Penang.
“Olympic Day falls on June 23 every year… so this is the first time we are holding it in KL with TRX, where we have organised a programme with the public, featuring 40 booths for them to join in celebrating the Olympics.
“Here, we are promoting Olympic activities and sports, and with roughly 30 days before the national contingent heads to Paris (for the 2024 Olympic Games), we hope this carnival can provide support and encouragement to our contingent heading there,” he said when met by reporters here.
In addition to Raintree Plaza TRX, the celebration, which aims to build excitement ahead of the Paris Games from July 26 to Aug 11, will also be held at Universiti Pendidikan Sultan Idris, Tanjung Malim, on Sunday.
Meanwhile, Nazifuddin said the OCM is leaving all decisions regarding the selection of athletes for wildcard quotas for Paris to the discretion of sports associations.
He said there are three wildcard tickets available — two for swimming and one for athletics.
Malaysia has the opportunity to increase the number of athletes at the prestigious sporting event if women’s golfer Ashley Lau manages to rank within the top 60 players in the Olympic Golf Ranking before the qualification deadline for the Paris Games on June 24.
It has also been reported that the Malaysia diving team is waiting to see if it is allocated a ticket under the “unused quota”, which depends on the decision of the International Swimming Federation.
Twenty-one Malaysian athletes have qualified for Paris, in events including archery, badminton, cycling, diving, golf, sailing, shooting, and weightlifting.
The Olympic Day carnival here will continue until its grand finale this Sunday.
— Bernama
