KUALA LUMPUR: The Higher Education Ministry is looking to set up a Centre of Excellence for Sports (PKS) and two Sports Focus Centres (PST) for swimming to boost talent development.
Higher Education Ministry sports sector deputy secretary Datuk Dr Pekan Ramli disclosed that Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) has been earmarked for the PKS role.
Promising swimmers can be channelled to universities that are either PKS or PSTs. This will allow them to continue swimming competitively under the university's programme.
This is intended to reduce the number of swimmers who quit the sport once they leave school.
"We have already presented (the proposal) to the relevant government agency and from what we understand, it has been approved," said Pekan yesterday.
"We, however, have not received any confirmation on what allocation will be given and when implementation can begin, the finer details have not been ironed out yet.
"The universities or colleges selected to become PKS or PST will be those that already have the necessary facilities, including swimming pools.
"There are currently seven PKS and 13 PSTs for various sports across the country. We have never had any PKS or PST for swimming before, these will be the first."
Elite performers are usually placed at PKS universities, which receive greater allocations compared with their PST counterparts.
Malaysian swimming has suffered a steady decline over the past decade, and this has not gone unnoticed by the sporting authorities.
The government's High-level Committee (HLC) for sports, chaired by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Ahmad Zahid Hamidi, has listed swimming, athletics and combat sports among its key priorities for development as they all offer a large number of medals at multi-sport competitions such as the Sea Games.