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KUALA LUMPUR: The head of the Southeast Asian Games Federation (SEAGF) on Monday (Aug 28) said Malaysia’s training programme for athletes should be emulated after its outstanding performance at the SEA Games, dismissing allegations of the host nation fixing the event.
With two days to go, Malaysia has exceeded its 111-gold target – making it their best ever performance at the regional games.
SEAGF and Olympic Council of Malaysia president Tunku Imran Tuanku Ja’afar told Channel NewsAsia in a session with the foreign media that homeground advantage and “the best preparation that any Malaysian SEA Games team has ever had” were behind the strong showing.
“Almost every athlete taken on board the (Ministry of Youth and Sports’) Kita Juara programme, which I think was a great programme,” he said. “And, putting my Olympic Council of Malaysia hat on, we’d recommend this be done for every SEA Games because the standard has risen.”
He added: “And I think these countries that keep complaining Malaysia fixed it or whatever – yeah, we fixed our athletes to perform better by very good exposure, very good training, very good coaching, many of them were sent overseas.
“There was an investment made in these athletes and it has paid off.”
Indonesia’s pencak silat team manager had reportedly accused Malaysia of cheating in the men’s artistic doubles on Monday, when Malaysia’s Taqiyuddin bin Hamid and Rosli bin Mohd Sharif took gold.
Tunku said Indonesia should formally lodge a complaint with the silat federation, adding Malaysia had nothing to do with the judging process.
Malaysia’s bid to cultivate sporting talent has appeared to pay off on the international arena as well.
Its three flag bearers at the SEA Games opening ceremony were all world champions – Cheong Jun Hoong (10m platform diving at World Aquatics Championships), Azizulhasni Awang (gold in men’s keirin at the World Track Cycling Championships) and Mohd Al-Jufferi Jamari (winner of the men’s Putra E class at the World Silat Championships).
“A GOOD GAMES BUT COULD HAVE BEEN BETTER.”
As hosts, the SEAGF said overall, Malaysia had done well but there was room for improvement.
“It wasn’t bad (but) some aspects of the Games could certainly have been better,” said Tunku.
“The thing is you’re only doing this one every 16 years or 18 years. A lot of new people came on board and definitely as a whole, it’s a very good final result because that’s how you have to look at it.”
Tunku Imran said among the complaints received was on navigation and lack of proper signage. There were also problems with transport, with one bus driver carrying athletes arrested for alleged theft and not possessing a driver’s license, while another bus was involved in an accident.
Malaysia has also had to contend with allegations of violence and rude chanting at football matches, but the SEAGF said security has been increased at these events and met with football supporters’ associations ahead of last Saturday’s semi-finals.
“I think as a whole, from a federation point of view, it’s been a good Games,” said Tunku Imran. “But we are going to get the feedback, we are going to do surveys with the stakeholders – from the members, the athletes, the officials, just to get the feedback so in future, wherever there’ve been shortcomings, things can improve.”
Malaysia has been lauded, however, for efforts like its Green Games initiative which includes planting a tree for every medal awarded at KL2017 to offset its carbon footprint.
The introduction of new sports including, for the first time, winter sports such as ice hockey has also been a huge hit with the public.
This SEA Games was also the first to have an arbitration panel to resolve disputes, which the SEAGF said “worked very well and very fast”.
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