Skip to main content

Elite track cyclists to stay away from SEA Games

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia will not send their elite track cyclists for the Indonesia SEA Games in November although a clean sweep of the gold medals in the men’s event is possible.
With elite cyclists like Azizulhasni Awang, Josiah Ng and Rizal Tisin in their ranks, it won’t take much for Malaysia to dominate the proceedings.

But the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) prefer more challenging tasks for their riders.
MNCF deputy president Datuk Naim Mohamad also felt the same, adding that he strongly supported Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek’s suggestion that athletes for the Road to London programme focused on the 2012 Olympics than participating in the SEA Games.

Naim, in fact, prefers to use the SEA Games as a platform to expose the back-up riders.
“Cyclists who excel at the SEA Games should then move on to higher continental and world competitions. We should send our back-up riders to the SEA Games and let our elite cyclists focus on qualifying for the Olympics.

Naim pointed out that the SEA Games, to be held from Nov 11-20, would clash with the World Cup meets in Australia and Colombia for the 2011-2012 season.

“These two World Cup meets offer valuable qualifying points towards the Olympics. The qualifying process has already started and we are working hard to meet the objectives of getting representation in all the sprint disciplines on the track,” he said.

Track cycling was last held at the Korat SEA Games four years ago, with Malaysia bagging all four gold medals in the sprint disciplines.



Star

Comments

  1. Anonymous28 January 2011 at 8:31 am

    Syabas Datuk Naim, this is the way to go. Sending our athletes like Josiah Ng, Rizal Tisin and the likes is like using an elephant gun to kill a mosquito. Lets face it SEA Games is only regional, it is no longer as attractive as it used to be.Beating the small boys in SEA Games is a waste of time in your project to the Road to London.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ex-coach's jail sentence cut to a year

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal yesterday sentenced former athletics coach C. Ramanathan to 12 months' jail for molesting two junior athletes 19 years ago. A three-man bench led by Datuk Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus unanimously dismissed Ramanathan's appeal against conviction, but varied the jail sentence of four years to a year, which was to run concurrently. Following yesterday's ruling, Ramanathan, 75, a former teacher, walked out a free man as he had served 10 months in Kajang Prison. Convicts get one-third remission for good behaviour while in prison. However, he will lose his pension. Hishamudin, who sat with Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail and Datuk Linton Albert, said the court found no merit to overturn the conviction. "However, in reducing the sentence, we considered Ramanathan's age and the long years the appeal has taken." Deputy public prosecutor Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud submitted that then High Court judge Tan Sri Abdull Hamid E...
2 comments
Read more

Govt Always Gives Emphasis To Sporting Culture, Says PM

KUALA TERENGGANU, May 29 (Bernama) -- Datuk Seri Abdullah Ahmad Badaw i said the government always gives emphasis on cultivating a strong sporting culture in achieving excellence at the international level. As such, the Prime Minister said, it was important to scout for young talents in sports. "I observe that the Malaysia Games (Sukma) has become one of the important platforms to do so. "In this arena, the potentials and skills of the youngsters can be identified for development so that they can achieve greater success in sports," he said in his message in the souvenir book of the 12th Sukma from May 31 until June 9. Abdullah said he was aware that competition in sports was very keen and challenging but this did not mean that Malaysian athletes were incapable of competing at the international level. "The fact is that we have all the characteristics required to be excellent. We must inculcate a strong fighting spirit so that we don't easily surrender,...
1 comment
Read more

Rajagobal Let Off The Hook

PETALING JAYA, April 24 (Bernama) -- National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed. FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach. "After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement. "Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday. Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to com...
4 comments
Read more