Chef de mission says sorry for falling short of SEA Games gold target

PHNOM PENH – Malaysia’s SEA Games chef de mission, Datuk Mohd Nasir Ali, apologised to all Malaysians following the national contingent’s failure to achieve its 40-gold target at this year’s Games.

Nasir said the 677 athletes who shouldered Malaysia’s challenge had fought hard and described the haul of 34 gold, 45 silver, and 96 bronze medals this time as the best achievement that could be produced.

“I humbly wish to apologise if the 40-gold target was something hoped for but we didn’t achieve it.

“But the 34 gold won are medals of quality, I am confident that we can improve on this 34-gold haul,” he told the Malaysian media here.

Malaysia have recorded their worst Games performance since collecting 31 gold medals in the 1995 edition in Chiang Mai, Thailand. 

Additionally, the national contingent’s final position of seventh on the medal board is their lowest-ever finish at the Games, having placed sixth at last year’s edition in Hanoi, Vietnam.

Commenting further, Nasir reiterated his stand that the 40-gold target was a realistic one.

He said the target was not set casually as three meetings had been held to finalise the number.

“We held three meetings so it (the target) was not a last-minute thing and we also discussed the target with each association, so after this we need to go back to the associations and ask for an explanation,” he said.

In the meantime, he did not feel that short preparation was the main factor contributing to the national contingent’s failure, although he admitted that some sports faced problems during the preparation period.

Without revealing which sports he was referring to, Nasir said the core sports had indeed been preparing earlier while some of the less-popular sports were still given the opportunity to perform despite having little preparation.

Meanwhile, Nasir said Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh together with Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria will provide details on the performance and achievements of the athletes at the Games at a performance summary press conference in Kuala Lumpur this Friday.

“This decision does not mean that the KBS (Youth and Sports Ministry), OCM, MSN (National Sports Council), or ISN (National Sports Institute) do not want to face the media (here), but a detailed analysis of the performance of the Malaysian contingent needs to be done, one by one,” he said. – Bernama, May 17, 2023