INCHEON, Oct 4 — The head of the Malaysian contingent to the 17th Asian Games, Datuk Danyal Balagopal Abdullah has described the contingent’s failure to meet the eight gold medal target as not a complete let-down.

He said all athletes had shown great determination to meet the national target but they were unlucky in not delivering the medals despite trying their best.

 “The people cannot see the determination displayed by national athletes to bring glory to the country and only those at the championship venues knew what took place...and I do not fault the athletes on the matter but appreciate their courage at the Asian Games,” he told reporters here today.

The national contingent failed to fulfil the eight gold medal target as set by the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) and the National Sports Council (NSC) after concluding their challenge in Incheon with five gold, 14 silver and 14 bronze medals.

Danyal said merely seeing success in sports such as karate (two gold medals, squash (two gold medals), sailing (one gold medal) was unfair, and there were parties wanting to label the others as failing to meet their targets.

“We should have brought back six golds but unfortunately, the first gold through wushu was withdrawn by the organiser, causing Malaysia to lose one gold medal,” he said.

The first gold medal won by Tai Cheau Yuen was withdrawn by the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) when she was tested positive in her urine test for sibutramine, a banned substance under the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada)’s list of prohibited substances.

Danyal said sports such as hockey and football had also shown improvement despite failing to win any medal. 

“The extraordinary performance by the national football squad was commendable, especially when we met Saudi Arabia even though our under-23 squad lost 0-3.

 “The hockey squad has also put very credible performances and was unlucky to lose to Pakistan in a semi-final shoot-out,” he noted.

He however, expressed disappointment with the performance of the national sepak takraw squad which lost to Thailand in the men’s team and regu events.

In another development, Danyal was disappointed with the attitude of a sepak takraw team manager who was not with the team due to personal reasons.

 “I do not need to mention the name...the irresponsible attitude of the manager in changing the flight schedules several times resulted in the cancellation of the accreditation card which greatly inconvenienced the squad,” he said.

He said he pitied the sepak takraw coach, Jamaluddin Hassan, who had to manage the team and carry out the duties of the team manager.

 “I will be recording the matter in my report upon arriving home,” he added.            

Malaysia failed to meet its eight gold medal target and could only muster five gold, 14 silver and 14 bronze medals.

In the past 20 years of Asian Games, the Malaysian contingent won four gold at Hiroshima, Japan (1994), five gold in Bangkok, Thailand (1998), six gold in Busan, South Korea, eight gold in Doha, Qatar (2006) and nine gold medals in Guangzhou, China (2010) which was the best achievement by Malaysia. — Bernama