Malaysia knuckle down for Olympics

By FABIAN PETER

Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has tasked the NSI to start scouting for potential athletes to make the Olympics 2020 and 2024 cut.

MALAYSIA have finally taken initiatives to look at long term success, planning ahead of time for the 2020 and 2024 Olympics.

The National Sports Institute (NSI) chaired a meeting with its 18 core sports associations today in Bukit Jalil, and will kick-off their initiative to find more talents beginning next month.

Director of backup athletes Jefri Ngadirin sat with Sports247.my and shared a little about the aim of the programme.

“We have been asked by our Minister (Khairy Jamaluddin) to start looking at long-term plans, and so we have finally decided to come up with this.

“We will be tapping into talents  from the ages of 14-16 from all across Malaysia, and they will be absorbed into this programme. We have spoken to the associations to draft out a list of selection criterias’ which will be presented when we meet in  fortnight’s time.

“Talents will not be chosen based on quality and performance alone, but physical attributes will also be one of the key factors,” Jefri said.

He added that at present the athletes pyramid consists of the national elites, backups and regional athletes under the national program.

However with the introduction of the new programme, athletes selected from the states will have two camps each year for monitoring purposes, and they will also now have the opportunity to be exposed to overseas trainings and competitions.

“At the moment state athletes only train at out training centres’ based in their hometown. With this initiative, we will allow them to go overseas for exposure. We will also invite other nations to come here for friendlies,” added Jefri.

There are currently 251 NSI centres across Malaysia and an estimated 5,500 athletes.

“We are looking at getting a pool of about 700-800 athletes. These athletes will then be monitored closely.

“If we find them exceptionally good, then they may also be absorbed into the national elite or backup squad.

“Our target is to have a camp in Janda Baik next month, using the criterias’ set by the associations. And if all goes well, we should have a pool of athletes at the end of January. These athletes, based on performance, may also compete at the 2017 SEA Games in Myanmar.

“They may not be expected to win anything yet, as we have still have our elites and backup’s, but the exposure may be valuable,” explained Jefri.

When asked about football, Jefri said “Football is a stand alone, they have the National Football Development Programme (NFDP) which is a big programme, so we don’t want to mix it all up.”

The 18 disciplines

Swimming
Diving
Syncronised swimming
Weightlifting
Badminton
Track cycling
Road cycling
Artistic gymnastic
Rhythmic gymnastic
Field hockey
Fencing
Archery
ISSF shooting
Skeet and Trap shooting
Athletics
Sailing
Taekwondo
Boxing

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