The National Sports Council (NSC) will do everything possible to make it a problem-free stay for the Malaysian contingent, when they start arriving in batches in Beijing from Sunday.
NSC elite programme director Mohd Ariffin Ghani, who is in Beijing with Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) officers (Fong Wan Hor), gave this assurance yesterday.
The pollution in Beijing is said to be the worst seen over the past month. This is despite efforts taken by the Chinese government to reduce the number of vehicles in the city.
“The sky is still hazy here. But we were given assurances that the smog will clear by the time the Olympics begin (on Aug 8),” Ariffin said in a telephone interview from Beijing yesterday.
“If the sky remains like this (hazy), we will advise the athletes to bring along masks. We will prepare them to face any eventualities here.”
Yesterday, Ariffin and the OCM officers registered every member of the Malaysian contingent with the Games organisers.
“This is the final day for us to register our Olympic-bound athletes and officials. In the next few days, we will sort out their accommodation, transportation and all other matters. We will also take a look at the venues,” he said.
“Everything will be ready when our athletes arrive here. We do not want them to be bogged down with all these logistic matters. We want them to strictly concentrate on the Games.”
A total of 33 athletes will represent Malaysia in nine sports – athletics, archery, aquatics, badminton, cycling, taekwondo, sailing, shooting and weightlifting.
Malaysia have won only three medals at the Olympics – all in badminton.
In Barcelona 1992, Malaysia won a bronze medal through the Sidek brothers of Jalani-Razif.
Four years later in Atlanta, Malaysia bagged a men’s doubles silver medal through Cheah Soon Kit-Yap Kim Hock and a men’s singles bronze through Rashid Sidek.
The Star
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