PUTRAJAYA, Aug 31 — Youth and Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman has called on the people, especially netizens to stop hurling online abuse towards skateboarder Fatin Syahirah Roszizi on her performance at the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games.

He said the criticism should be directed towards him, as the minister, and the association responsible for choosing the 16-year-old to compete at the Games.

"I will continue to defend Fatin on her patriotism for taking the challenge of representing the nation to the eyes of the world at a young age,” he said when met during the National Day 2018 celebration at Dataran Putrajaya here today.

He was responding to the criticisms thrown at Fatin following a video clip of a poor showing of the national women’s skateboarding team became viral and received harsh comments from netizens after ending the campaign with the lowest score and poor performance as soon as the competition started.

Syed Saddiq said the people should celebrate Fatin’s courage to compete with international champions and provide unwavering support to her.

He added that the critics should consider the association’s statement that the selection to represent the country for the event was open to all but those who came for the try-out were too small and Fatin was among the best.

Syed Saddiq said he had asked his officers to arrange a meeting with Fatin to express his and his ministry’s support to the athlete as she had potential.

Meanwhile, Syed Saddiq was also stated his disappointment with the attitude of some people who disputed the clothing used by national gymnast Izzah Amzan after a video of the teenage athlete performing at the Asian Games was uploaded to her Instagram site recently.

Syed Saddiq said the group of critics only focused on the clothes used by Izzah while the original purpose of the clip was to lift up and recognise the sport.

"I’m disappointed with the dispute on the issue. Rhythmic gymnastics is not an easy sport and they have to go through various challenges before they can be called gymnasts,” he said.

Among the issues that become the talk of the netizens were the clothing of the 17-year-old athlete while performing was about not covering the ‘aurat’ and some of them suggested wearing long pants while competing.

Commenting on the possibility of changing the Malaysian contingent’s medal target at the Asian Games following the performance of the national athletes in many finals, Syed Saddiq said the target of seven gold medals still remained although he was confident that it will increase.

"The target is still the same but as some sports are yet to start their finals such as sailing, squash and hockey, we hope there will be a better gold collection before the curtains come down on the Games,” he said. — Bernama