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National Athletes Can Still Qualify For London Olympics - NSC

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 28 (Bernama) -- National athletes under the 'Road To London 2012' programme can still qualify for next year's London Oylmpics, said National Sports Council (NSC) Athletes Division director Ahmad Shapawi Ismail.

He said several qualifying meets had been identified to enable all athletes in the programme to qualify for the London Games, which will kick off at the end of July next year.

"Although the London Olympics is getting near, just 212 days away, it does not mean time has run out for national athletes to qualify (for the London Olympics)," he told Bernama here.

So far seven national athletes have qualified for the London Olympics with four of them from the archery squad, namely Cheng Chu Sian, Khairul Anuwar Mohamad, Haziq Kamaruddin and Nurul Syafiqah Hashim.

The others are divers Bryan Nikson Lomas, Pandelela Rinong and Yeoh Ken Nee.

Ahmad Shapawi said the NSC had lined up several competitions for the women's archery squad to enable the lady archers make the cut.

They have the World Championships in the United States in July to qualify with the Grand Prix Asia in Thailand, World Cup first series (China) and World Cup second series (Turkey) as pre-cursors.

As for the national shuttlers and cyclists, Ahmad Shapawi said, they still had until May next year to qualify while the Asian Championship in Doha, Qatar in February would be the final chance for the national shooters.

Meanwhile, the national men's hockey squad will know whether they get to compete in the London Games after the Oylmpic Qualifiers in Ireland in March next year.

Under the 'Road To London 2012' programme, the NSC are betting on the core sports of badminton, cycling (track), diving, shooting, archery and hockey to bring home Malaysia's first ever gold medal from the Olympics at the London Games.

-- BERNAMA

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