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MAAU To Restrict Athletes From Participating In Commercial Championships KUALA LUMPUR, April 29 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian Amateur Athletics Union (MAAU) will restrict local athletes from participating in commercial championships to enable them to concentrate on world tournaments. Its vice-president, Karim Ibrahim said many local athletes, especially middle and long distance runners had been taking part in local championships almost every month to earn supplementary income. "It is good for training as they are pitted against foreign runners. However, if their intention is to earn extra money, then we will have to curtail it," he said when contacted Tuesday. He added that a monitoring committee headed by former national long distance runner, S. Muthiah would study the matter where possible, athletes might be permitted to take part only in three commercial championships in a year. Karim, who is also MAAU Coaching Committee chairman, said as not all marathon dis

Laos Want Sports Like Shuttlecock, Fin Swimming In 2009 SEA Games By Jaiarajo Letchumanan KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 (Bernama) -- The initial 22 sports proposed by Laos, the host of the 25th SEA Games, has come under fire from a number of countries, including Malaysia. Laos, picked to host the 2009 SEA Games, have indicated they might only host about 25 sports, a far cry from the 43 medal sports and two demonstration sports hosted by 2007 host, Korat, Thailand. Sports like shuttlecock, merely a traditional game played by ethnic groups in Asian countries like Vietnam, China, Laos, Cambodia and fin swimming have been proposed, instead of weightlifting, snooker or basketball. The sport of shuttlecock which resembles a hoop sepaktakraw match, uses feathers clustered together just like a shuttlecock used in badminton but played with the feet. The shuttlecock game is divided into two basic types - the artistic (points for the most difficult moves with the feather ball) and the

Look Into Players' Welfare, Ismail Tells Sports Bodies KUANTAN, April 27 (Bernama) -- Sports bodies, especially football associations, have been urged to look into the welfare of their players to prevent corruption seeping into the country's sports. In making the call, Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob said at present there were sports associations which did not manage players' salaries well to the point of making their lives difficult. "I find players not being paid, so how are they to live?" he told reporters after closing the National Paintball League championship here Sunday. He was commenting on the possibility of corruption rearing its head again following delays by football associations in paying their players' salaries. Expressing disappointment on the corruption issue, he said his ministry had aided the country's sports associations with allocations to develop sports. Ismail, however, said if an association faile