SHAH ALAM, May 23 — A day after blaming National Sports Council (NSC) for her premature retirement, former national gymnast Nur Eli Ellina Azmi has accused them of lying.

NSC issued a statement on Monday in response to Eli’s Instagram post which alleged she had been owed five months of allowances.

NSC said they stopped paying her because Eli had retired as she was not eligible for the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

But yesterday, the KL2017 SEA Games gold medallist refuted the suggestion.

"I retired on Feb 2 not because of my non-selection but I was fed up and disappointed with NSC’s treatment of athletes,” said the 23-year-old.

"In their statement, NSC said my name wasn’t in the list submitted to Olympic Council of Malaysia selection committee which convened on Oct 3, 2017.

"However, in their reply to my letter dated Jan 10, they said Malaysia Gymnastics Federation needed to submit their final list to the committee which met on Jan 8-9.

"This meant the selection process on Oct 3 wasn’t final as initially told.

"Although the contract for SEA Games’ Kita Juara programme ended on Aug 31, NSC asked us to continue training despite giving a ‘cooling off period’ of two months.”  

She also claimed athletes were not allowed to stay at the hostel or have meals at the cafeteria in Bukit Jalil and denied NSC made attempts to meet her as mentioned in their statement.

Eli was glad her Instagram post caught the attention of Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman, who promised to take up the matter with Sports Ministry and NSC.

Meanwhile, NSC director general Datuk Shapawi Ismail maintained Eli retired because she was not selected for Gold Coast.

"This means she was no longer under NSC and thus not entitled to allowances,” he said.

"We’ll meet her soon and settle the issue amicably.”