LETTERS: The Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) and the National Sports Council (MSN) must have a more detailed strategy in terms of going for certain sports that have the potential to contribute more gold medals to the Malaysian contingent in any sporting tournaments in the future.
This approach will help the country's contingent win more medals and to achieve them, there should be an increase in financial allocations, send potential athletes to train abroad, in addition to a better training programme.
However, the focus on gold medal prospect events such as athletics and swimming does not mean that the agency responsible for improving the quality of these sports needs to marginalise other sports that also have the potential to contribute gold medals to the country.
Apart from this, the sports bodies and associations in the country must furnish the correct, precise information to KBS, NSC and the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) to avoid the target set for any sporting event as being self-conceited, narcissistic and failed to be realised by the athletes.
The lack of detailed information risks failure to achieve the target set for the national contingent as happened at the Cambodia SEA Games 2023 when Malaysia brought home only 34 gold medals compared to the targeted 40.
But, the burden of the failure should not be placed entirely on the Minister of Youth and Sports, Hannah Yeoh and her deputy, Adam Adli Abdul Halim. Instead, all parties need to take responsibility including the leaders of sports associations.
The target set by the sports association also needs to be realistic, taking into account the ability of each athlete. Do not put too high a target as the athletes will struggle to fulfill what is set when entering the tournament as this will further affect the image of the country.
Looking at the achievements of the national athletes at the Cambodian SEA Games, it's not a complete failure for Malaysia even though target was not met because the young athletes sent managed to create surprises and achieve success including breaking national records.
The exposure to the young athletes and their success is a positive sign for the future achievement of the national sports. It will also be the best preparation ahead of the next SEA Games in Thailand in 2025 and in 2027 when Kuala Lumpur hosts the SEA Games.
For the record, at the Cambodia SEA Games, Malaysia featured 387 athletes or 56.33 per cent of sportsmen and sportswomen under the age of 23 in various events.
Out of those, 65 per cent of athletes made their first appearance at the SEA Games thus proving that we are prepared to give young athletes the chance to progress and become future national sports icons.
Senator Datuk Mohd Hisamudin Yahaya
Kuala Lumpur
The views expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect those of the New Straits Times
