Athletics: Karim had agreed to Noraseela’s stint

Noraseela‘s request was discussed with MAAU deputy president Karim Ibrahim.

AFTER casting doubt on the necessity of Noraseela Khalid's South African training stint, it turns out the Malaysian Amateur Athletic Union (MAAU) was in agreement for it all along.

National Sports Council (NSC) director-general Datuk Zolkples Embong expressed his surprise on MAAU president Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim's remarks questioning the need for hurdler Noraseela to go to Pretoria.

When Noraseela submitted her request in late November to train at South Africa's IAAF High Performance Training Centre, Zolkples himself discussed the matter with MAAU deputy president Karim Ibrahim, who raised no objection to the stint.

"We would never do anything without consulting the national sports associations on something concerning their athletes. Noraseela submitted her request (in November) and I had a meeting with Karim, who agreed to it," said Zolkples yesterday.

"Noraseela is a proven athlete who has won medals at Asian level so she deserves our support. She has been unfortunate to have been hit with a spate of injuries but she understands that we cannot go on supporting her without her showing results.
"So we agreed to re-evaluate her performance after six months. We saw no reason not to support her request as top athletes need to have constant top level training and competition."

After Saturday's MAAU board meeting, Shahidan set Noraseela an ultimatum to qualify for the World Championships in Berlin to justify her training stint and said MAAU would no longer approve of training stints abroad.

NSC was keen to get clarification on the training ban from MAAU but Karim failed to appear at a scheduled joint working committee meeting with NSC on Monday when he cited a prior medical appointment.

MAAU's view of Noraseela's training stint stands in sharp contrast to its approval of a separate stint for four Police cross country runners to Iran this month.

MAAU forked out RM23,000 to send the four runners and Iranian coach Azizollah Mirzaei to Teheran after NSC turned down its request to compete in the Asian Cross Country Championship in Bahrain on March 1.

While Noraseela -- who has qualified for the Laos Sea Games in both the 400m and 400m hurdles in her first two races in Pretoria -- stands a reasonable chance of qualifying for Berlin, the four cross country runners are not expected to have any chance of creating an impression in Bahrain.

NST