KUALA LUMPUR – Athletes recently dropped from the national training programmes can still use the facilities and amenities in the National Sports Council (NSC) and National Sports Institute (NSI) during the six-week training that will be held in stages soon.
NSC Athletes Division director Jefri Ngadirin said they were currently holding workshops with national sports associations (NSAs) to discuss the suitable dates to implement the training as well as for the hosting of several domestic competitions so as to give athletes the chance to qualify for the SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam in May.
“We will decide the details for the training (that will be held in stages) and the upcoming competitions in the next one week. If the athletes qualify for the SEA Games, we will absorb them into our training programmes.
“If they succeed in meeting the qualifying marks for the SEA Games, namely the bronze-medal time, distance or marks from the previous edition, they will get direct access to all facilities provided, besides being eligible for the (training) allowances,” he told Bernama.
According to him, the NSC would also provide accommodation, food and other facilities to all athletes involved in the training that will be held in stages.
The NSC had previously dropped 144 national athletes, retaining just 298 of them (248 able-bodied athletes and 45 para athletes) for this year, apart from reducing their training allowances.
Commenting on the allowance reduction, he said this was to ensure the athletes would continue to strive to raise their performance levels by recording better achievements in upcoming tournaments.
“We can’t just go on sentiment, must be based on current performance. If SEA Games silver medallists receive RM800 now, they deserve to get RM2,000 if they win gold at the coming SEA Games (in May), which will subsequently increase to RM4,500 if they win gold at the Commonwealth or Asian Games,” he explained.
Based on the restructuring of allowances for athletes, SEA Games and ASEAN Para Games gold medallists will receive an allowance of RM2,000, while silver and bronze medallists will receive RM800.
Senior athletes in the programme who have not won any medal will receive RM800, while back-up athletes will get RM500.
The training allowances for athletes who have won Asian Games/Para Asian and Commonwealth Games medals will remain the same, with the gold medallists receiving RM4,500, followed by RM4,000 (silver) and RM3,500 (bronze); while RM7,500 will be given to the winner of an Olympic/Paralympic Games gold, followed by RM7,000 (silver) and RM6,000 (bronze). – Bernama, January 10, 2022
