KUALA LUMPUR: The lack of gold medals from the national swimming squad at the Phnom Penh Sea Games is very alarming, says Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tan Sri Norza Zakaria.
Speaking to the press after chairing the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) council-cum-annual general meeting (AGM) today, Norza once again took Malaysia Swimming (MS) to task for failing to improve from their previous haul in Hanoi.
For the record, Malaysia only won one gold, three silver and four bronze medals in Phnom Penh. A total of 39 gold medals were on offer.
Neighbours Singapore, meanwhile dominated the pool by winning a whopping 22 gold medals.
"I don't think MS made any progress at all.
"If you look at Singapore, they won 47 medals in swimming, and 22 were gold. That is very scary.
"I hope MS will do something as when it comes to multi-sport events, the bulk of the gold medals come from athletics and swimming," Norza lamented.
Like swimming, athletics also failed to meet their 10 gold medal target set by the Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) by winning only five.
Norza, however, was not so critical as he believes there has been much improvement which bodes well for the national contingent ahead of the 2025 Bangkok and 2027 Kuala Lumpur Sea Games.
"Even if they didn't hit the target, these athletes were mainly first-timers.
"These athletes are being readied for the Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur editions.
"I do see some improvement from athletics, but unfortunately, I can't say the same about swimming," added Norza, who admitted that it might be tough for Malaysia to meet the 40-gold target with three days to go.