PAROI: Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) technical director Robert Ballard has again stressed the importance of grassroots development in the sport.
Ballard believes that age group competitions, especially for the under-9 to under-15 bracket, are key and must be made easily accessible to young athletes.
He stressed that grouping competitions into specific periods in a year and having them lead up to bigger competitions can also help streamline the junior athletes' season.
"The national and state competitions can be held from February to July while the school meets, for example, can be held from September to December," said Ballard, when met at the recent Negri Sembilan Open.
"On weekends, each district can organise a park run where each runner is timed. The runner can then work on improving his or her timing in subsequent park runs."
He added that roping in volunteers can help keep the cost of organising such events down.
On a separate note, Ballard said that the national contingent is gearing up to compete in the Southeast Asian Youth Athletics Championships which begins in Kota Kinabalu tomorrow.
Over 500 athletes from 11 countries are expected to compete in the meet.
The Likas Stadium has been upgraded with a budget of RM12.24 million to ensure it meets the international standards for the event.