KUALA LUMPUR: Badminton is not Malaysia’s only hope of attaining the country’s first Olympic gold medal, as in fact, there are several other sports that have the opportunity, says National Sports Council director-general Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail.
“In addition to badminton, several other sports have been identified to be able to contribute to the gold medal to the country, such as track cycling, diving and karate-do,” he said when met after appearing as a guest on Bernama News Channel’s talk show, ‘ Ruang Bicara’ at Wisma Bernama here.
According to Ahmad Shapawi, Malaysia had previously relied on limited resources to make great achievements in the Olympic Games.
“Previously, we only looked only at badminton (as a gold medal prospect). This does not mean that we (MSN) are denying the contributions made by badminton. Now, we have (capable) athletes in other sporting events like diving, for instance, Chong Jun Hoong has broken the dominance of Chinese divers in the individual events and we have Azizulhasni (Awang) who can pull off a shock win (in track cycling) “he said.
Ahmad Shapawi said the year 2019 was an important year for all athletes as they had to qualify for Tokyo Olympics either on merit or by collecting qualification points.
“Through the restructuring of athlete training programmes, athletes who have been placed in Tier 1 and 2, are now required to qualify for the Olympics. So far, two national sailors have qualified through their achievements in the Asian Games, while for other athletes, next year is the qualifying year for the Olympics, “ he said.
Two sailing sports athletes who have qualified for the Tokyo Olympics are sailors Khairul Nizam Affendy and Nur Shazrin Abdul Latif.
Meanwhile, there is also hope for a gold in the karate-do, which sees its debut in the 2020 Olympics.
Malaysia has three athletes in the world’s top 10, namely Syakilla Salni Jefry Krisnan in the ‘kumite’ category, as well as Lim Chee Wei and Celine Lee Xin Yi in the ‘kata’ category.
On Oct 30, Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman had announced that the Podium Programme would be restructured and fully managed by MSN.
The new programme uses a tiered system approach to allow flexibility in selecting athletes as well as make it easier to set targets.- Bernama
