CYCLING: Million ringgit failure

CYCLING: Million ringgit failure

By Arnaz M. Khairul
arnaz@nstp.com.my | 0 comments


MNCF president promises road programme review

The track cyclists won seven gold, two silver and one bronze while mountain biker Masziyaton Mohd Radzi contributed a silver.
1 / 1

An estimated total of RM10 million has been wasted on the national road cycling programme under the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) since 2007, going by the results in road events in the 26th Sea Games in Indonesia.

The results in road events, where Malaysia were once the Sea Games powerhouse, reached all-time lows with embarrassing results, particularly in the men's team time trial where Malaysia's elite riders finished sixth, even behind the likes of Singapore and Vietnam.


Whatever the track squad did after that, while celebrated, failed to hide the fact that the road programme is going down the drain, no thanks to immense bickering within the MNCF, where certain parties prefer maintaining control over budgets drawn from the Sports Ministry.


There was no doubting the capabilities of the national track cycling programmes, with a mix of elite riders like Fatehah Mustapa and Edrus Yunos and some promising back-up riders under the Pelapis programme.


Fatehah delivered three gold medals -- women's 200m sprint, 500m time trial and the women's team sprint with Jupha Somnet.


Reject Harrif Salleh, recalled just two weeks prior to the Games, proved a point when he took gold in the men's scratch race and then combined with Adiq Husainie Othman, Amir Mustafa Rusli and Akmal Amrun to keep the team pursuit gold medal in Malaysian hands for the third straight Games.


Aptly, all but one of Malaysia's seven gold, three silver and one bronze medal came from the Rawamangun Velodrome, with Masziyaton Mohd Radzi's women's cross-country mountain bike silver medal the odd one out.


The performance at the Rawamangun Velodrome, where Malaysia swept all but three gold medals on offer, just went to show even the Pelapis programme was on the rise, with Malaysia in a class of their own at Sea Games level.


The multi-million ringgit road programme, however, was an embarrassment even compared to the ill-funded BMX team who were making their Sea Games debut with Mohd Aim Mohd Fauzi and Masziyaton both coming within striking distance of medals in their respective finals.


The BMX team, aiming to make an impact in the hope of gaining support towards building a programme aimed at the Olympics, at least went home with their pride intact, showing promise of better things to come.


Not only did expected medals not come from the road events, the results were humiliating in certain events and MNCF president Abu Samah Wahab, charting the fortunes of the road programme personally, was visibly lost for words.


"I have to get a review from the coach (Graham Seers) and we will conduct a post mortem after this. In the road race, we knew we had to bring climbers and we were counting on the trio of Adiq Husainie Othman, Shahrul Mat Amin and Ng Yong Li to be up front, fighting for medals," said Abu Samah.


"On the day, only Yong Li performed and finished fourth. We don't know what happened. Adiq had suffered food poisoning and he wasn't able to perform, while Shahrul got dropped early.


"We know there needs to be change, but we'll review it first, whether we need to change the training regime or not. I personally had asked the team to train in Indonesia on the road race routes, they could have done that for three months, but there were people against it."


The road team conducted a reconnaissance mission at the road events venues in Subang three months before the Games, then spent time at a centralised training camp in Chiangmai, Thailand before moving to Ipoh when floods struck northern Thailand.


They were, arguably, the best prepared of the entire cycling squad, without any budget constraints. Abu Samah said national head coach John Beasley will also be consulted over a possible revamp.


Read more: CYCLING: Million ringgit failure - Racing - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/sports/racing/cycling-million-ringgit-failure-1.10198#ixzz1eaVJI3Zk