New Sports Minister does not want a repeat of the last two Olympics

KUALA LUMPUR: Anything less than a medal would be considered a failure for the Malaysian contingent in the Beijing Olympics in August.

Newly-appointed Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ismail Sabri Yaakob said this after a briefing with officials of the National Sports Council (NSC) and the National Sports Institute (NSI) at the National Sports Complex in Bukit Jalil yesterday.

Malaysia returned home empty-handed from the last two outings in the Olympics – in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004).

Ismail, who took over the reins from Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said, said that the target was to end a 12-year medal drought in Beijing.

“That is key performance index (KPI) we have set for the contingent. If we failed to come back with at least a medal, we have to accept the fact that we failed in our mission,” he said.

“No one should be offering any excuses if we cannot win at least one medal,’’ he said.

“I also want all the respective sports association whose athletes are going for the Olympics to have their own KPIs as well.”

Accompanying Ismail on his first visit to the sports complex in Bukit Jalil was the new Deputy Youth and Sports Minister, Wee Jeck Seng.

Malaysia last won medals in the Olympics in Atlanta in 1996 through the badminton men's doubles pair of Cheah Soon Kit-Yap Kim Hock (silver) and men's singles player Rashid Sidek (bronze).

Only badminton has brought Olympic medals for Malaysia. The first winners were Razif-Jalani Sidek, who took bronze when the sport made its Olympic debut in Barcelona in 1992.

Badminton realistically offers Malaysia the best chance to bag a medal in the Beijing Games but the NSC believe that athletes from archery and track cycling, who have made significant progress, stand an outside chance to get on the rostrum.

Ismail also hoped that Malaysia would be able to improve on their number of Olympic qualifiers. A total of 26 athletes featured for Malaysian at the last Games in Athens.

“Sixteen athletes have qualified thus far. We hope that 10 more will make it from badminton and four more from cycling to make it a total of 30 before May,” he said.

And asked whether the development of sports in the states run by the Opposition parties are going to be affected, Ismail said that he hoped to get a clearer picture after meeting officials from the respective state sports council.

“There is fear that development of sports may cease in a state governed by the Opposition party,” he said.

“We will study whether to disburse the funds directly to the sports association or do what we have done for Kelantan, the state government of which was not that keen on sports. What we did there was to set up the Kelantan Sports Council and it was run directly by the NSC.”

The Star