KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) vice-president Datuk Amarjit Singh Gill says the sports body is not aware of what arrangements Datuk Azizulhasni Awang may have had with the National Sports Council (NSC).
He adds they are not privy to those conversations as it is between the world champion and NSC.
“I think there must be a reason for things to come up in the open like this.
“At the same time, NSC is also very helpful to us, they have been supporting our cycling programmes and athletes.
“I think it’s better to try and resolve this amicably,” says Amarjit who is also the secretary-general of the Asean Cycling Federation.
Earlier today Azizulhasni had uploaded a long Facebook post which detailed his frustrations with NSC.
Among them is how the Melbourne base for Malaysian track cyclists is slowly being closed and all athletes are being forced to come home to continue their training in Malaysia.
Amarjit said the decision to bring the athletes home was not made out of the blue.
“This is a long-term strategy that they want to shift the base from Melbourne to Malaysia and for the training to be conducted here.
“The plan was done in stages, it was discussed in the Working Committee meeting between NSC and MNCF.
“This is not a sudden thing because everyone is now back in Malaysia. Azizulhasni himself finally came back in January this year,” said Amarjit.
Amarjit hopes whatever request made by Azizulhasni can be considered by Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh and the Road To Gold (RTG) committee so he can get the full support needed to hunt for Olympic gold.
Meanwhile, RTG coordinator Datuk Stuart Ramalingam is aware of all the problems facing Azizulhasni.
“I am aware of this issue that Dato Azizulhasni has been facing with NSC and this is part of the compilation of all the athletes’ issues and requests which I have just completed after meeting all the RTG athletes.
“The RTG Committee meeting is already being planned to take place in the next two weeks and all decisions will be made during this meeting accordingly.
“RTG was set up precisely to solve ‘roadblocks’ like this and unfortunately some longstanding issues like in this case started one and a half years ago between Azizulhasni and MSN which needed me (the coordinator) to obtain relevant details from various parties to be taken to the Committee for consideration,” said Stuart. – The Vibes, June 8, 2023
