PUTRAJAYA, June 9 — The sports fraternity has been rocked with news that the president of the Malaysia Canoe Association (Masca) Datuk Michael Wong has tendered his resignation with immediate effect citing unfair treatment in the selection of athletes for the Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.

Michael Wong said he was disappointed with the negative approach towards the association in the selection of athletes for the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China scheduled from September 23 to October 8.

Claiming that he has been upset with the turn of events in the selection process for sometime now, added that the final straw that prompted him to make such a decision was the outcome of the Olympic Council of Malaysia’s (OCM) Pre-Selection of Athletes and Officials meeting in Kuala Lumpur for the Asian Games in Hangzhou.

He added that during the meeting, it was quite clear that the National Traditional Boat Race was denied an opportunity to participate in the Games.

Michael Wong said though the National squad had met the Category B criteria to participate in Hangzhou, the OCM had informed Masca that only athletes who qualified under Category A would be sent to participate in the Games, as per a directive from the ‘top’ after the Malaysian contingent’s poor performance at the recent 2023 Cambodia SEA Games.

"I made such a decision (to resign) because as many are already aware that I was disappointed with what has been happening for the past five years. Nothing has changed,” he told reporters at the Putrajaya Lake Club, here today.

Michael Wong added that after OCM’s pre-selection meeting, "suddenly there are new categories introduced, namely B+, B1 and B2” thus providing an opportunity for sports that are not under Category A to participate in the Asian Games in Hangzhou but not Traditional Boat Race.

He claimed that all these years as president of Masca, he has never come across or heard of or informed of any new categories except for Categories A and B.

"What irked me most was that only during the meeting, we were informed about Categories B+, B1 and B2. I have no intention of disrupting the harmony of the sports fraternity but the OCM’s demand that we qualify under Category A does not seem fair,” he said.

He was also upset with the action of the OCM to give the association only 10 days (until June 20) to ensure the National Traditional Boat Race squad participated in international competitions to register a better position and qualify under Category A for the Asian Games because it does not make sense.

Category A enables individual athletes and teams ranked among the top four in Asia to qualify while those ranked among the top eight can be considered to be given an opportunity to participate under Category B.

For the record, Malaysia ended a 30-year wait for a medal in Traditional Boat Race in the SEA Games history by winning a silver medal at the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games through the men’s 250m 12 crew open category. — Bernama