KUALA LUMPUR – Heads are set to roll following the national karate squad’s poor performances, especially at the 17th Asian Championships and 19th Asian Cadet, Junior and Under-21 Championships in Almaty, Kazakhstan last month.
Malaysia Karate Federation (Makaf) are clearly disappointed with the exponents for returning with just one bronze medal from Almaty, through the men’s Under-21 84kg (kumite) event.
As such, about six exponents are set to face the axe.
Makaf, who are fully dependent on local coaches after deciding not to renew the contract of former head coach Ali Reza Souleymani of Iran early last year and bringing in former Thailand coach and two-time Asian Games champion R. Puvaneswaran, might also do away with several non-performing coaches after the technical committee meeting to be held soon.
Makaf secretary-general Datuk Nur Azmi Ahmad said they were looking to release the non-performing exponents and focus, instead, on the development programme by recruiting more youngsters through the Makaf Open to be held next month ahead of the Hanoi SEA Games in May and Asian Games in September.
“That performance (in Almaty) was very bad, not good for Makaf. Sure, we need to look back, conduct a post-mortem, we need to do something. We can’t blame the Covid-19 pandemic all the time... every country faces the same problem.
“No use keeping the non-performing exponents for long. If they do not perform for two or three years, better to drop (them) and concentrate on the development. We may have around 18 exponents in the senior squad, and 20-25 in the backup squad to concentrate on development. Makaf will bear the costs for the additional athletes,” he told Bernama.
Asked if Makaf will turn to a foreign coach again, Nur Azmi said he would leave the decision to the technical committee, but hinted that they would probably rely on local coaches until the Asian Games.
Yesterday, National Sports Council (NSC) Athletes Division director Jefri Ngadirin said the final list of athletes for the national training programmes would only be decided on Jan 24 as Makaf had yet to finalise their 28 exponents, including the backups.
Meanwhile, commenting on the allowance cut for national athletes, Azmi felt that it was too big an amount and hoped that the NSC would come up with a win-win situation.
“We don’t mind them cutting the allowances due to recent developments, but don’t ‘kill’ them with such a huge cut of up to 50 per cent. With the high cost of living in KL, what can they do with RM800 (for SEA Games silver and bronze medallists) a month? They also have to support their families and meet other commitments, like paying car instalments.
“As the associations also do not get enough funding from the government, how we can help the athletes? We are three-time consecutive overall champions in the SEA Games, (so) we hope the NSC will review their decision (and find) an amicable solution,” he said.
NSC director-general Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail announced on Wednesday the restructuring of allowances for national athletes based on their performance since 2018. This will see the SEA Games and ASEAN Para Games gold medallists receiving monthly allowances of RM2,000, while the silver and bronze medallists will receive RM800.
As for athletes who won medals in the Asian Games/Asian Para Games and the Commonwealth Games, the gold medallists are set to receive RM4,500 followed by RM4,000 (silver) and RM3,500 (bronze) while RM7,500 awaits the gold medallist of the Olympic/Paralympic Games followed by RM7,000 (silver) and RM6,000 (bronze).
Apart from that, athletes who do not get a medal but are still listed in the NSC training programmes will get RM800 while the backup athletes receive RM500.
In 2019, a review of allowances saw medal winners at the Olympic/Paralympic Games receiving RM7,500, followed by athletes who won medals at the Asian Games/Asian Para Games receiving RM6,000, the Commonwealth Games receiving RM3,500 and the SEA Games/ASEAN Para Games RM2,000. – Bernama, January 7, 2022
