Eradicate ‘Syok Sendiri’
mentality
Enough is enough. Sports associations and athletes need to be put on the mat, if they fail at the Hangzhou Asian Games next month. It is time to eridicate the ‘lax and another chance’ attitude among sports associations and athletes.
The Hangzhou Asian Games next month (Sept 23 – Oct 8), should serve as the last platform for both sports association and athletes, to rise and shine, or face the brickbats and stand on their own and rise again.
To this, the Ministry of Youth and Sports, National Sports Council (NSC) and Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM), have to put their foot down and adopt the policy of being ‘ cruel to be kind’ to raise sports standards up again in the near future.
Enough of all the support monetarily, facilities and sports and science, given to the national sports associations (NSAs) and athletes, but being short changed most of the time.
For the Hangzhou Asian Games, some 292 athletes will represent Malaysia with the delegation including badminton stars Lee Zii Jia and Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, Malaysia’s diving queens Pandelela Rinong Pamg and Nur Dhabitah, and track cycling Olympic medallist Azizulhasni Awang.
Again Malaysia will be banking on the tried athletes, including for the Paris Olympics next year, and a majority of the Olympic contingent medal hopes to deliver Malaysia’s first ever gold at the Games, are the same for the last two Games – Rio and Tokyo.
After two cycles of Games, one would have expected fresh faces to have surfaced for the gold medal hope, as it is evident with other countries.
But have the NSAs worked hard enough to produce these potential champions or have left it to NSC to do their job.
How much can NSC handle and what is their expertise in the various sports where the NSAs are the experts in their respective sports.
Yes, NSC engage the NSAs but how much are the latter really involved or have a say?
NSC under the Cash Incentives has allocated what they call Skim Hadiah Kemenangan Sukan (SHAKAM) where cash gifts of different amounts are given out depending on an athlete’s medal placement in different sports events where they represent Malaysia.
A number of sports events are covered under SHAKAM, namely the Olympic Games, Asian Games, the Commonwealth Games, and the Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.
For the Olympic Games, individual gold medal winners will be entitled to RM1 million, whereas silver medal and bronze medal winners will get RM300,000 and RM100,000 respectively.
For team sports, the amounts remain the same and will be awarded to the team to be shared – as seen in the case of Pandelela and Cheong Jun Hoong when they won silver in the women’s synchronised 10m platform event during the Rio Olympic Games in 2016. To date, as many as 13 Olympic athletes- 8 silver and 5 bronze – have reaped rewards through the SHAKAM programme.
The same RM1 million reward is given to athletes who win a gold medal in the Paralympic Games. Cash incentives is also given to Sea Games gold medalist – in team sports with less than five players will also receive RM20,000 for gold, while those with more than five will receive RM5,000 per person.
However, silver and bronze medal winners will not receive any rewards.
National athletes who broke SEA Games records will receive RM1,000.
Coaches and sports associations responsible for the athletes would be rewarded through the Coaching Incentive Scheme (SGAR) and the Sports Management Excellence Scheme (SIKAP).
Rewards are even given by State Councils for the national games – Malaysia Games!
While all these incentives are in place to be reaped, but we have to move away with rejoicing with pride and thumping the chest over Sea Games achievements.
Sea Games in the lowest level of sports, and it is about time NSAs and athletes set their targets for Asian level championships and the Asian Games, let alone the Olympics.
For the Hangzhou Games, which was postponed from last year to this year, athletes had an extra year to prepare themselves with targets set.
However sadly, the medal target for the Malaysian contingent to the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou will be set after evaluating national athletes’ performance in several tournaments over the last two months, while some teams are still training overseas.
The NSC in a statement recently had said that the target will then be announced by the Chef-de-Mission (CDM) Datuk Chong Kim Fatt during the Jalur Gemilang handover ceremony to the national contingent which will be graced by the Prime Minister, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, scheduled on 11th September.
Among the tournaments that medal hopefuls participated or are participating as a final preparation before going to Hangzhou, are the World Championships in Valencia from Aug 23-27 for gymnastics and the Asian Track Cup Cycling Championships in Thailand (Aug 26-30).
For badminton, national shuttlers participated in the China Open (Sept 5-10) and Hong Kong Open (Sept 12-17) and ongoing World Championship in Denmark, while squash players will compete in several competitions in Qatar and the United States.
Representatives from 26 national sports associations involved with the Asian Games together with the Olympic Council of Malaysian (OCM), the National Sports Institute (NSI) and other stakeholders attended a target-setting workshop organised earlier this week.
It was to identify the ability and latest performance of the national athletes to be used as a measure of the ability to win medals.
Also focused on at the workshop was the evaluation of the latest performance of the athletes from other countries who pose a challenge to the potential medal winners in the national contingent.
Seriously setting targets a month before the Games?
Athletes should have set their targets way before and working towards it.
Perhaps, the Malaysian Hockey Confederation (MHC) were the only NSA who were bold enough to set an early target to win the gold medal at the Asian Games and qualify for the Paris Olympics Games next year and working towards it diligently with a proper programme.
Infact, there was a hue and cry by critics, when hockey was named under the multi-million Road to Gold (RTG) programme recently, as they were not seen as Olympics gold medalist.
But let it be reminded that the while RTG programme is with the aim for gold Paris Olympics, it is also aimed at preparations and medal targets for other major competitions in the future, including the Asian and Commonwealth Games, by providing them the support they need.
It is about time the sports administrators in the country have long term plans – probably two or three Olympic cycles ahead – and work towards it, instead of short term programmes.
We have seen in the past how similar programmes like the RGT have failed, among them Road to London, Road to Rio and Road to Tokyo (RTT) to win our first gold medal at the Olympics.
Will RGT face a similar fate. Time will tell but instead of allowing history to repeat, perhaps, we need to take a different long term approach and not have a programme every time we have a new Sports Minister!
For Malaysian sports to move forward, we need a change of mentality to have proper long term programmes and work towards it with discipline, determination, diligence, dedication and patience with good coaching, technical and sports science foundation.
We don’t have to look far for examples. Just look at Korea, Japan, China and even India. Yes, they have the huge population on their side to spot talent from a wide base, but it is more their programme and discipline to carry it out with utmost discipline and dedication that has borne fruit over time.
It is about time, Malaysia sports stop being satisfied with mediocre performance and being second best and thumping their chest with these below par performances and jumping for joy with the number medals won at the Sea Games, especially when we host it!
Look at the Asian level to have an eye at World level in the future, otherwise continue to remain under the shell!
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