KUALA LUMPUR: Sports observer Sadek Mustaffa believes promising 400m runner Umar Osman can still be placed at a foreign university via a student exchange programme.
Plans to place Umar, 21, at Auburn University in the United States this year were hampered as he was unable to achieve the minimum score in the Test of English as a Foreign Language (TOEFL), which is an entry requirement.
Sadek, who is also an academician, said there are ways to work around this stumbling block.
Umar is currently studying at Politeknik Ibrahim Sultan.
"Umar needs to be placed at a (local) university instead of a polytechnic. Universiti Putra Malaysia (UPM) would be suitable for him as UPM is the Centre of Excellence for Athletics in Malaysia," said Sadek recently.
"Once he has entered university here (Malaysia), his university can then enroll him in an exchange programme with foreign universities as part of a strategic partnership between the two universities. Such inbound-outbound policies do exist."
Auburn University is where Azeem Fahmi, who is the national record holder in the 100m event, currently studies and trains.
Sadek added that it is important that Umar, who is the 400m national record holder, makes the move.
"We have seen Azeem's confidence levels improve tremendously since moving to the US. This is because he has gained a lot of exposure to high level competitions and training there," said Sadek.
"Umar needs to get the same kind of exposure. Universities in the US and Europe have world class athletes in track and field.
"Our athletes need to be in that kind of environment. By placing our athletes abroad, we also don't have to keep sending them for tournaments abroad from Malaysia."
Sadek stressed the importance of developing Malaysian athletes in athletics and swimming as both sports offer many medals in major multi-sport competitions such as the Olympics, Asian and Commonwealth Games as well as the Sea Games.