KUALA LUMPUR – The National Sports Council (NSC) will finalise the list of athletes for their training programmes on January 24.
NSC Athletes Division director Jefri Ngadirin said this was because the Malaysia Karate Federation (Makaf) has yet to finalise their 28 exponents, including the backups who will be absorbed into the training programme this year.
“At the working committee meeting at 2pm today, Makaf wanted to postpone the decision on their final list of exponents for the NSC training programmes.
“Makaf asked to be allowed to make an assessment and selection according to the criteria set before their selected athletes can start their first training early next month,” he said when contacted by Bernama.
He said the decision to be reached on January 24 would be based on a consensus among the parties involved in the meeting, including from the National Sports Institute (NSI) and Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM), as a result of further discussions to determine the list of athletes eligible for the training programmes.
Asked why karate was the last sport to hold a meeting although all the other 22 associations had made their decision in December, Jefri said Makaf wanted to consider the performance of their exponents at the Asian Karate Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan on December 19-22.
Yesterday, NSC director-general Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail said that based on their limited allocation, they had to reduce the number of athletes for their training programmes this year by offering 248 places compared to 432 last year to regular athletes and 45 spots compared to 114 for para athletes.
A total of 178 backup athletes have been offered new contracts compared to 260 last year while 22 backup para athletes have been given the opportunity to enjoy the training programmes this time. – Bernama, January 7, 2022
