KUALA LUMPUR: Former Podium Programme director Tim Newenham has defended the programme’s effectiveness in grooming athletes despite its failure in producing impressive results in two major assignments.
He feels that the RM67 million invested on elite athletes under programme was not a waste despite Malaysia returning with only seven gold medals each from this year’s Gold Coast Commonwealth Games and the Indonesia Asian Games.
The programme was introduced in 2016 with a goal to produce athletes good enough to win Olympic titles at the 2020 Tokyo edition.
“The programme showed encouraging returns. I don’t think the expenditure was too high.
“We provided a service to the athletes similar to the latest initiatives in sports science and technology used by other countries.
“We needed to invest and follow the latest trends. If not, we would have been left behind,” said Newenham.
At the recent Asian Games, the national contingent finished 14th by winning seven gold, 13 silver and 16 bronze medals, and at the Commonwealth Games, Malaysia were 12th overall with a 7-5-12 haul.