KUALA LUMPUR − National athletes should be given one more chance to prove themselves in 2022 in a bid to remain in the National Sports Council (MSN)-run training programme.
Malaysia Swimming secretary-general Mae Chen pointed out that the new stipulation by MSN was deemed totally unfair as the athletes had lost the last two years due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“Of course, it’s unfair − these athletes were locked in MSN, they were training hard day and night and mentally stressed but now, they are informed that they are not wanted and didn’t get an extension to their contract,” she told Bernama when contacted.
Despite some athletes having the opportunity to compete at the Tokyo Olympics last July, Mae observed that most of them did not have much competitive action.
“What about those young, inspiring athletes, who did not go to Olympics? It’s not fair to gauge them without any proper competition,” she said.
Recently, MSN decided to set achievements at top tournaments since 2019 as the key performance indicator for athletes to remain in the MSN-run training programme in 2022.
The move by MSN comes after facing the reality that there will be no specific provision to continue with the Podium Programme after the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and Paralympic Games.
It thus decided that only 288 truly eligible athletes would be retained for full-time training programmes ahead of next year’s three major games, namely the Hanoi SEA Games in Vietnam; Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom; the Asian Games and Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, China.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress secretary-general Maradona Chok opined that there has to be a better way to gauge the athletes due to the budget cut faced by MSN.
Maradona was also concerned about the fate of the upcoming athletes and felt that they should be given the right platform to prove themselves as many were unable to do so previously.
Asked about his thoughts on the Podium Programme, Maradona said MSN must consider tweaking the programme to make it more realistic.
This, he said, could be done by giving more attention to sports that had the potential to deliver success.
Citing bowling as an example, he said that the sport has provided a strong succession programme supported by MSN, which proved that Malaysia could indeed produce world champions continuously provided the whole development system had the right support.
“As much as we want that elusive Olympics gold medal, we should not be neglecting the sports that we are already winning at the world-level and maintaining that dominance or level to compete,” he added.
Meanwhile, Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia president Gerard Monteiro said he understood the difficulty faced by MSN as the nation was in dire straits at the moment, especially in battling with the ongoing pandemic.
“We have no choice but to live with what MSN gives us. Although we did not have many events in the last two years, luckily, our squash camp has done well, especially in winning both the men’s and women’s titles at the recent Asian Team Championships,” he said.
Gerard also felt that more funds could be obtained from the private sector and hoped that the government would consider providing incentives to those who contributed to local sports. – Bernama, December 23, 2021
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