Athletes From Road To London Programme Shine At The Games

JAKARTA: Malaysia put up a respectable showing in the 26th edition of the SEA Games held at two cities – Jakarta and Palembang – despite the hostile crowd.

In the Games, which came to a close on Tuesday with colourful display of fireworks, Malaysian athletes from the Olympic sport made the loudest noise here in Indonesia with their good performances.

Going for gold: Pandelela Rinong on her way to winning the women’s 10m platform gold medal in Palembang.

Malaysia won a total of 59 gold medals to finish as the fourth overall team behind runaway leaders Indonesia (182), Thailand (107) and Vietnam (96) and out of that, 39 gold came from Olympic sports.

In fact, in the five sports under the Road to London programme – archery, badminton, diving, cycling and shooting – Malaysia have done better than their counterparts.

Indonesia have a total of 24 gold medals to show from these five sports, followed by Malaysia (18), Vietnam (8), Thailand (4) and Singapore (1).

Archer Cheng Chu Sian, divers Pandelela Rinong, Bryan Nickson Lomas, Yeoh Ken Nee and shooter Nur Suryani Mohd Taibi did well to underline their status in their respective sports.

In the strong Asian Games sports like bowling, karate and wushu, the athletes also delivered the goods.

These athletes were competing in a hostile battleground where jeers and boos were the norm of the day but they did not cave in.

Rather than retaliating or responding in an unsporting manner, our Malaysians athletes turned deaf ears to their jeers and went on with their mission.

Football, especially, did the country proud after beating Indonesia in a fantastic manner to defend the crown and silenced the Senayan Roar at the Gelora Bung Karno Stadium.

Careful aim: Cheng Chu Sian on target in the archery event.

But the Malaysian sports should not hide behind these “little” successes because there are few areas that we need to take a hard look at ourselves in the mirror.

There were poor results too.

All the Malaysian shorinji kempo athletes finished last in their events; in team sports like baseball, softball (men and women) and men’s waterpolo, we did not even win a single match; and in tennis, none of our athletes went beyond the second round despite so much money being spend on them.

They should not be stopped from competing but the bar has to be raised even higher.

Talking about higher qualification marks, there should be one for the officials too.

The doors should not be open to everyone to make their trip to the SEA Games on the expenses of the tax payers money. Careful thought should be given before one is accredited.

It is agreed that Indonesia could have done better if not for their issues on corruption, ill preparation, the poor crowd control and the annoyance from a sea of uncivilised fans but Malaysians are not all angels either.

Take a look at the Malaysian Amateur Athletics Union (MAAU)! Despite lack of care and attention, their 4x400m quartet of S. Kannathasan, P. Yuvaaraj, Schzuan Ahmad Rosely and Muhammad Yunus Lasaleh defied the odds to win a gold medal – after making their way to the SEA Games at the last minute through the good will of some coaches, who trusted their ability and talent.

Trust, is also something that the National Sports Council (NSC) should have for their athletes, coaches and sport associations.

Team managers were willing to stick their head for a 60-medal gold target but the NSC lowered it to 40-45.

Malaysia should learn to aim high – it does not matter if the team fail. At least, they would have been pushed themselves to the limit – especially those young athletes.

The next Games is in Myanmar and they have promised to do better than Indonesia – by scaling down the numbers of sports and events and ensuring better stay and a more friendly environment.

Hopefully, the Games will regain it’s status once again.