unsatisfactory haul at the recent Glasgow
Commonwealth Games proves that national sports development is in need of an
overhaul, and that could start with an audit of the programme that was
intended to prepare athletes for the Commonwealth and Asian Games this
year.
Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said he will discuss the impact that the
programmes, which started in 2011, have made with the national sports
associations (NSA) involved but stressed he will have the final say on
whether it is carried out.
The national athletes won six gold medals in Scotland, one less than the
target set for them. Malaysia won 12 gold at the New Delhi Commonwealth Games
in 2010.
“If we do decide to do it, it will take time. This is no ordinary financial
audit, this is to determine the effectiveness of the programme,” said Khairy,
when met at the flag handing over ceremony for athletes heading to the
Nanjing Youth Olympics in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
“Most importantly, I need to find the suitable people to do it
(audit).
“This audit cannot be done by the National Sports Council, National Sports
Institute, Olympic Council of Malaysia or the NSAs as they are among the
stakeholders. I am sorry to say but they are also the culprits of the
situation.
“Ultimately, all the funding used for the programmes were approved by the
sports minister and it is at the entire discretion of the minister to conduct
the audit or not.”
He added the performances of the national athletes are expected to continue
to improve at each edition of the competition, considering the continually
increasing amount of public funds used to develop sports in Malaysia.
“Of course we want to see a return on investment. The more you invest, the
more you will want to see in returns but unfortunately that has not been the
case.
“It comes back to long term planning. Now the four years (of preparation)
are up. There was not much I could do as it was ongoing but now we have
another four years to prepare for the Gold Coast (2018 Commonwealth Games)
and Jakarta (2018 Asian Games) and we have to get it right as it is difficult
to change it midway.
“Give me a bit of time to fix this.”
Khairy, however, said that setting a fixed target at the start of the
four-year programme would be unrealistic.
“Each programme (for specific sports) does have goals from the beginning
but to give a specific target at the start would be unrealistic.
“We have to take into account injuries, availability and the form of the
athletes going into the competition and this can only be done closer to the
event when external factors could come into play.
“For example, at the Commonwealth Games we had to revise our target after
Lee Chong Wei was injured. We did not revise it after Pandelela Rinong got
injured. Maybe we should have.
“However in the past, our (finalised) targets usually do not deviate far
from the initial target.”
A total of 20 athletes will compete in 10 sports at the Youth Olympics in
China on Aug 16-28. Former national badminton player Wong Pei Ty will lead
the Malaysian contingent as chef-de-mission.
Pandelela won two silver, Malaysia’s only medals, in the diving competition
at the inaugural games in Singapore four years ago. |
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