PETALING JAYA: It was a timely New Year cheer for taekwondo coach R. Dhanaraj as he can look forward to keeping the elite national exponents under his wings for another year.
There had been rumours that the National Sports Council (NSC), facing reductions in their operating budget this year, wanted to drop taekwondo from the full-time training programme.
But in a meeting with the NSC director for preparation of elite athletes, Ariffin Ghani, two days ago, Dhanaraj was given the assurance that the national elite training programme for taekwondo will continue.
“They have agreed to let taekwondo remain in the national training programme,” said Dhanaraj. The agreement is for six to be placed in the elite squad where the focus will be on preparations towards the Asian Games in Guangzhou (in November). We will also identify three more exponents for the programme and also to prepare for the SEA Games (in Indonesia in 2011).”
The six who will be form the elite group are Laos SEA Games gold medallist Che Chew Chan, Elaine Teo, Nurul Nadia Mahamat, Mohd Afifuddin Omar Sidek, Rusfredy Petrus and Ryan Chong.
Chew Chan was the sole gold medallist in taekwondo for Malaysia in the Games in Vientiane last month, making a successful defence of the women’s middleweight title even though she had been out of competition since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Dhanaraj added that it was a relief to him to be able to keep his job to have the exponents in place.
“If the funding was stopped, it would not be possible to expect this group to come back to fight again,” he said.
“They would probably have to go out to look for jobs and whether they can get leave to join training is another thing.
“The Asian Games will be our main focus and if the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) have faith in us, I am confident we will be able to deliver the medals.”
Malaysia did not compete in taekwondo at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha because of the internal problems in the national association. In their last outing in the Asiad in Busan in 2002, Malaysia bagged three bronze medals.
There had been rumours that the National Sports Council (NSC), facing reductions in their operating budget this year, wanted to drop taekwondo from the full-time training programme.
But in a meeting with the NSC director for preparation of elite athletes, Ariffin Ghani, two days ago, Dhanaraj was given the assurance that the national elite training programme for taekwondo will continue.
“They have agreed to let taekwondo remain in the national training programme,” said Dhanaraj. The agreement is for six to be placed in the elite squad where the focus will be on preparations towards the Asian Games in Guangzhou (in November). We will also identify three more exponents for the programme and also to prepare for the SEA Games (in Indonesia in 2011).”
The six who will be form the elite group are Laos SEA Games gold medallist Che Chew Chan, Elaine Teo, Nurul Nadia Mahamat, Mohd Afifuddin Omar Sidek, Rusfredy Petrus and Ryan Chong.
Chew Chan was the sole gold medallist in taekwondo for Malaysia in the Games in Vientiane last month, making a successful defence of the women’s middleweight title even though she had been out of competition since the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
Dhanaraj added that it was a relief to him to be able to keep his job to have the exponents in place.
“If the funding was stopped, it would not be possible to expect this group to come back to fight again,” he said.
“They would probably have to go out to look for jobs and whether they can get leave to join training is another thing.
“The Asian Games will be our main focus and if the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) have faith in us, I am confident we will be able to deliver the medals.”
Malaysia did not compete in taekwondo at the 2006 Asian Games in Doha because of the internal problems in the national association. In their last outing in the Asiad in Busan in 2002, Malaysia bagged three bronze medals.
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