By DEVINDER SINGH
devinder@nst.com.my
SPORTS schools are playing an increasingly important role in the success of national athletes as evidenced at the recent Indonesia Sea Games.
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| K. Teagarajan (right) won gold at the recent Sea Games in Indonesia. |
Be they national or state level, the effort led by Bukit Jalil Sports School (BJSS) and the Tengku Mahkota Ismail Sports School (TMISS) in Bandar Penawar, Johor is producing tangible results.
While talent is still being developed outside the government funded system, the steady stream of sport graduates from BJSS and TMISS has become the lifeblood of Malaysian hopes for excellence on the sporting stage.
The two national sports schools are tasked with developing 20 sports and the schools came through in Indonesia where "Pelapis" athletes -- part of the development programme under the auspices of the National Sports Council (NSC) which draws most of its athletes from sports schools -- won four gold, four silver and 13 bronze medals.
The tally does not include the football gold medal which includes several players from the Young Tigers who graduated from BJSS with one -- Nazmi Faiz Mansor -- still a student at the school having deferred his SPM examinations this year to play in the Sea Games.
A total of 51 athletes from the Pelapis programme competed in Indonesia and while most are former BJSS students, nine are still students at the schools and seven are from regional centres in Penang and Langkawi.
NSC Pelapis division director Jefri Ngadirin said given the focus of the sports schools in developing talent for the various sports, it is inevitable that the large majority of back-up athletes will come from these schools.
"There were 51 athletes, second-liners, who went to the Sea Games and out of these 40 qualified under Category A, which means they got in on merit. Aside from these 52, we had another 60 athletes who were just recently in March promoted from the Pelapis category to elite squads.
"That Pelapis athletes won four gold medals is testament to the good work being done by coaches at the various youth levels. The gold medals were not expected as most were competing at the Games for the first time and were there for exposure," said Jefry.
Jefri said he expects to see more athletes move up to elite status next year and the process of replenishing the ranks at Pelapis level starts once again.
"Those athletes who excel will move up to the elite level and we will replace them by taking in athletes emerging from the sports schools, regional and state centres," he added, citing the case of archer Nurul Syafiqah Hashim.
Syafiqah, 17, who is undertaking pre-university studies at BJSS, recently qualified for the 2012 London Olympics and has been fast-tracked into the archery elite squad.
The Kuala Lumpur archer won a silver medal at the Sea Games in the mixed recurve event and with enough exposure, could go on to better things in the sport.
Her's is not the only example as the sports schools have produced champions in track cycling, diving, squash and badminton in recent times.
The success of badminton players, especially, have caught the eye when Nelson Heg Wei Keat and Teo Ee Yi became the third successive doubles pair from BJSS to emerge world junior champions.
They followed in the path of Ow Yao Han-Chooi Kah Ming (2009) and Yao Han-Yew Hong Kheng (2010) and much of the success of the doubles pairs are down to BJSS doubles chief coach Yap Kim Hock, an Olympic silver medalist in 1996 at Atlanta with Cheah Soon Kit.
Kim Hock said the process of developing talent at junior level is long and tedious but a challenge he welcomed gladly.
"From my many years of experience playing and coaching, I have been able to develop programmes to ensure our players are put on the road of success. There is no one golden pill in developing champions, a lot of hard work and dedication is needed on the part of players and coaches.
"I've learned from some of the best coaches and I'm just putting into practice the best parts of all the various programmes. Year by year, we make improvements to the programmes to ensure our players stay a step ahead of the competition," said Kim Hock.
Taking in the best coaches is a successful formula, at least for BJSS, with various achievements at national junior level.
Under the guidance of former international Ismail Ibrahim, BJSS shocked the competition to win the football Under-20 President's Cup in 2010 with a squad made up largely of Form Five players.
In hockey, BJSS won the National Junior Hockey League league and cup double six times while TMISS-Thunderbolt were league victors in 2010 and overall champions this year. Both teams also play in the senior Malaysia Hockey League Division One with limited success.
Another BJSS athlete, Ng Eain Yow, won the prestigious British Junior Open squash Under-13 boys' title early this year.
But if there is one drawback to the national sports school system, it is the limited number of places available.
BJSS and TMISS combined can cater to about 1,000 students and quite often, players are drafted into the school at a late stage of development.
Despite his success in developing world junior champions, Kim Hock feels he needs more time to develop true world beaters in the mould of Lee Chong Wei.
"At present, I get the players when they are in Form Four after selecting them from the inter-state junior tournaments. Ideally, I need three to five years to really develop players into becoming world class.
"I know three pairs have gone on to become world junior champions, but if I had more time with them from when they were younger, they would be even better players than they are now," said Kim Hock.
Read more:
SPORTCHECK: Delivering results - Other - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/sports/other/sportcheck-delivering-results-1.14754#ixzz1fcl5fLLR
