PUTRAJAYA: Following the poor performance in certain sports at the Myanmar SEA Games last December, the National Sports Council (NSC) will be adopting a ‘strategic intervention’ approach to “realign” the national sports associations (NSAs) concerned.
Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said among the sports that underperformed and needed urgent attention were swimming, athletics, road cycling, gymnastics, sepak takraw and badminton.
He said Malaysia used to be a regional powerhouse in these sports but now they could no longer be hoped for medals.
“As such, there is need a for strategic intervention, cooperation between the NSC, National Sports Institute and the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) to look into this malaise.
“The NSC and OCM need to engage the NSAs concerned to repair the damage,” he told reporters after chairing a post-mortem meeting on the national contingent’s performance at the Myanmar SEA Games yesterday.
Khairy said the meeting among others discussed in detail the steps that could be taken by the NSAs concerned apart from strengthening them at the affiliate (state) level.
Meanwhile, Khairy said he had instructed auditors from his ministry to audit how its annual allocation of RM1.5 million to the Malaysian National Cycling Federation (MNCF) for their road cycling development was spent.
He said this was being done because there were complaints that the fiscal reports on the matter were “too general”.
The audit comes in the wake of the dismal performance of the national road cycling team in Myanmar Games. — Bernama