Youth Commonwealth Games: OCM Targets Three Medals

THE Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) has set a realistic target of three medals for the 2011 Youth Commonwealth Games in the Isle of Man, the United Kingdom, which starts on Thursday.

Malaysia will be sending a 23-member contingent comprising 18 athletes and five coaches to compete in four of the seven sports contested, namely badminton, athletics, cycling and swimming.


Malaysia will not participate in boxing, gymnastics and rugby sevens.

Chef-de-Mission Rosmanizam Abdullah said the "realistic" target was due to the omission of weightlifting from the Games, a favourite sport for Malaysia to win medals.

"Although it is a very low target compared with the previous editions, any target set must be realistic," he said after receiving the Jalur Gemilang from OCM honorary secretary Datuk Sieh Kok Chi at Wisma OCM yesterday. Malaysia's medal hopes hinge on badminton through Asian Youth Championships men's singles champion Zulfadli Zulkifli and women silver medallists Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean.


In the first edition in Edinburgh, Scotland, Malaysia won one gold, three silver and four bronze medals and improved on that haul at the second edition in Bendigo, Australia with six gold, nine silver and three bronze, four years later.

In the 2008 edition held in Pune, India, the Malaysian contingent won three gold, five silver and four bronze medals with badminton accounting for two gold and shooting contributing one.


The contingent leave for the Isle Of Man today.


The first edition of the Youth Commonwealth Games was hosted by Scotland in 2000 and is held every four years, the same year as the Olympics.

In 2005, however, the Commonwealth Games Federation decided that the Games that feature athletes below the age of 18, would not be held the same year as the Olympics. -- Bernama

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