SEPANG, Aug 29 — National tenpin bowler Muhammad Rafiq Ismail who won the gold in the men’s Masters event at the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games has attributed his success to the effectiveness of the Podium Programme.

The programme under the National Sports Institue (NSI) is one of the High-Performance Plan initiatives by the Ministry of Youth and Sports aimed to bring home Malaysia’s first gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics as well as to finish among the top 10 teams in the 2018 Asian and Commonwealth Games.

"The podium programme has helped me in terms of the facilities provided and so on. Without them (NSI) I would not have won the gold.

"I hope the podium programme continues, although we know that the Podium Programme for tenpin bowling will end this year,” he told reporters after arriving at klia2 here yesterday.

For the record, no Malaysian has won a medal in the men’s Masters event at the Asian Games so far, with the best result being fifth place through Alex Liew in the 2006 edition in Doha and Guangzhou in 2010.

Rafiq also won a silver medal at the Games in the trio event with Ahmad Muaz Fishol and Timmy Tan Chye Chern.

Asked about his future plans, Rafiq said he wished to take a break for now and would withdraw his participation from the Lucky Larsen Masters Bowling Tournament in Sweden next month.

"I have told my coach that I want to take a break, because I’ve participated in many tournaments this year ahead of the World Tenpin Bowling Championships For Men this November in Hong Kong,” he said. — Bernama