KUALA LUMPUR – Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria has admitted that it would be difficult for the Malaysian contingent to reach its 40-gold medal target at the 2023 SEA Games in Cambodia.
However, he is confident that if the national contingent improves its performance, it will definitely be able to do some “magic” to add to its existing gold medal tally. given that the biennial games have another four more days of competition until next Wednesday.
“I feel it is difficult, but the situation is almost the same as it was in Hanoi (in the 2021 SEA Games in Vietnam) last year.
“I hope that in the remaining days, they can work harder to ensure that we can add more gold medals,” he told reporters at Akademi Badminton Malaysia here today.
Malaysia is currently seventh on the medal table with 28 gold, 36 silver, and 67 bronze medals compared with its target of 40 gold, 37 silver, and 64 bronze medals.
Apart from this, Norza said he feels Malaysia now should focus on sports that will offer more gold medals such as athletics and swimming when participating in sports competitions.
“I think the athletics squad showed improvement at the games. At the last games in Hanoi, they were not in their best form, but this time we see young athletes contributing gold medals.
“However, it is different for swimming. I hope Malaysia Swimming (Federation) can do something after this. This is because when we participate in sports competitions, many gold medals come from swimming and athletic events,” he added. – Bernama, May 13, 2023
