KUALA LUMPUR: BAM president Tan Sri Norza Zakaria has received the Sports Leadership Icon award at the Sportswriters Association of Malaysia-100PLUS Awards 2022.
Norza received the award for his track record in not just leading BAM, but several other associations and organisations as well.
Among Norza's highlights as BAM president were Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik winning the World Championships in Tokyo last year, and the Olympic silver medals bagged by Lee Chong Wei, Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong (men's doubles) and Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying (mixed doubles) at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Norza's initiative to introduce Key Performance Indicators (KPI) in assessing players, also saw the emergence of talent such as Lee Zii Jia, Aaron-Wooi Yik, and Pearly Tan-M.Thinaah.
Under Norza, the Malaysian contingent's haul of 62 gold at the 2015 Singapore Sea Games was the biggest at the biennial games outside of Malaysia
Recently, Norza was appointed honorary president for Badminton Asia, and chairman for the Sports for All Committee in the Olympic Council of Asia.