Two-time Asian Games gold medallist R. Puvaneswaran has returned for a second stint as national karate coach after signing a one-year contract recently.
Malaysia Karate Federation (Makaf) secretary-general Datuk Nur Azmi Ahmad said Puvaneswaran's immediate target is to help the national squad retain their overall Sea Games title in Vietnam later this year.
Puvaneswaran, fondly knows as Puva, had coached the national team for four years, beginning from 2011, before moving to Bangkok to manage the Thai team from 2017 to 2019.
Puvaneswaran, 46, replaced Iranian Ali Reza Souleymani, whose contract was not renewed by Makaf.
"Puvaneswaran was selected based on his experience and performance as an exponent and coach, especially with Thailand.
"He will focus on preparing our exponents for this year's Sea Games and next year's Hangzhou Asian Games.
"Ali's contract was not renewed because we wanted a more advanced coach," said Azmi on Saturday.
He also said that under the new structure, there would be no head coach, adding that Puvaneswaran and the two existing coaches – S. Mahendran and Alexander Arlanthu – would be monitored by a technical team, led by deputy president Datuk Vincent Chen.
"After this, we will determine who among the three will take charge of coaching Road to Tokyo exponents – S. Prem Kumar and R. Sharmendran.
"Although qualifying for the Olympics will be challenging, we want to make sure we have at least a representative in Tokyo."
Puvaneswaran, who represented the country for 20 years before retiring in 2010, had won gold medals at the 2002 (Busan) and 2010 (Guangzhou) Asian Games.
Thailand achieved their best-ever Sea Games outing in karate under Puvaneswaran with a 3-2-3 haul at last year's Philippines edition. --Bernama