Skip to main content

Zolkples: Athletics needs closure on allegations against Karim



KUALA LUMPUR: National Sports Council (NSC) director general Datuk Zolkples Embong (pic) wants the findings of the inquiry into former Malaysian Athletic Union (MAU) deputy president Datuk Karim Ibrahim’s alleged involvement in two doping scandals to be made public as soon as possible.

While welcoming the change in the leadership of the MAU, Zolkples said it was imperative that the new council be allowed to make a clean start without the baggage of the past administration.

“But how can the report be made public if newly-elected MAU president Datuk Zainal Abidin Ahmad and his council don’t have a copy?” he asked.
“How are we going to know whether Karim is innocent or the guilty?”
The report is with former president Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim, who lost to Negri Sembilan AA president Zainal by two votes in the elections.

Karim was also ousted, losing to Terengganu AA president Datuk Wan Hisyam Wan Salleh by six votes.
The inquiry panel, headed by retired judge Tan Sri V.C. George, was set up to investigate the charges against Karim.

The committee handed copies of the findings to Shahidan, Karim and Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tan Sri Tunku Imran Tuanku Jaafar last Thursday.

Shahidan refused to disclose the contents, saying he wanted the council to have a look at it first.
He also said the MAU lawyers had to study the report before making it public. Zolkples said he hoped Shahidan would hand over the report to the newly-elected exco.

“I hope he does, otherwise we won’t know what the findings were,” said Zolkples, adding that the change in the MAU leadership was a step in the right direction to save the sport.
“Datuk Zainal is a good and knowledgeable leader and we will do our best to help MAU get back on track,” he said.

“We will assist them anyway we can to return athletics to its glory days.”
Zolkples said Datuk Shahidan’s target of winning nine gold medals at next year’s SEA Games in Myanmar was unrealistic given the circumstances.

“Athletics has been in the doldrums and it will take some time and effort to turn things around,” he said.

“We hope that with intensive training and exposure, the national athletes will be able to do better than the last SEA Games in Palembang.”

Malaysia won six gold medals in Palembang but the men’s 4x400m relay team were stripped of the gold after Mohd Yunus Lasaleh tested positive for a banned substance.



THE STAR


Comments

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

Badminton: Fans rooting for all-Malaysian semis

Reports: RAJES PAUL KUALA LUMPUR: The home fans will be rooting for an all-Malaysian men’s singles semi-final between Lee Chong Wei and Liew Daren. But Chong Wei is more fancied to advance than Daren in quarter-final matches against Indonesian Simon Santoso and Dane Peter Gade-Christensen respectively at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil today. Yesterday, Chong Wei defeated Vietnamese Nguyen Tien Minh 21-9, 18-21, 21-7 in a second-round match that saw the world number one struggling to adapt to the draught in the stadium in the second game. And Daren continued a fairy tale run in his home Open, blowing away a toothless Hsueh Hsuan-yi of Taiwan 21-14, 21-12. Although Choong Wei had to slog for the win over Tien Minh, the top seed and defending champion felt that he was playing better by the day. “I got off to a good start but found it hard to cope with the draught. I tried to catch up after losing my momentum but that did not happen and I decided to conserve energy for ...
11 comments
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