KUALA LUMPUR: The poor administration of the Malaysian Extreme Sports Association (MESA) is said to be a cause for the poor results of the country’s skateboarders at the recent Indonesia Asian Games.
It is claimed that Malaysia’s medal prospects for the Asian Games, Koya Miyasaka, Fikri Fauzi, Zainul Mustaqien and Muhd Nur Firdaus, were unable to compete in Indonesia due to various factors on MESA’s part.
As a result, Malaysia were reduced to just four skateboarders in Yaziru Amiru Basyir Zainordin, Fatin Syahirah Roszizi, Ian Nuriman Amri and Christina Grace Lai for the Asiad.
Born in Malaysia to Japanese parents, Koya, 19, who has won competitions in India and Indonesia, was good for gold at the Asian Games. But he had to miss the Games after MESA failed to apply Malaysian citizenship for him.
The Penang-based Koya felt that MESA were not proactive enough and did not show much interest in athletes’ welfare.
He also questioned the association’s training programmes. “For training, it’s next to stupidity. They (skateboarders) were given weight training as part of their programme. This has no relation to skateboarding.”
Koya said while MESA couldn’t help pay for his plane ticket or bus ticket to Kuala Lumpur for an Asian Games-related meeting, the association were able to spend thousands of ringgit for a dinner in Bangsar, Kuala Lumpur for a meeting where they invited their family members.
Meanwhile, Sarawakian Zainul, 27, said he and his brother Firdaus were forced to withdraw from the Asian Games as they did not have enough funds to travel to Kuala Lumpur for training.
“Actually, Malaysia could have won a medal as we would have finished at least in the top three (Asian Games,” he said.
Zainul claimed that the MESA’s direction is not clear and they did not make good on their word.
The Malaysian skateboard community have taken to social media to complain about MESA’s failings, and they demand that MESA secretary general Datuk Manjit Singh Gill, who also holds a position in the new administration under MYSKATE, and Asian Games team manager Zamri Ramli resign from their positions in skateboard associations.
This, they hope, will see Malaysian skateboarders having a better chance of qualifying for the 2020 Olympics.