KUALA LUMPUR, July 6 — The smaller size Malaysian contingent to the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games has not hindered hopes of bringing home success as the preparations of the country’s athletes are now going well ahead of the quadrennial sports event.

Malaysian Contingent chef de mission (CDM) to the Glasgow 2026 Commonwealth Games Datuk Awalan Abdul Aziz said a total of 59 national athletes including 22 para athletes will bring Malaysia’s challenge in eight of the 10 sports contested in this edition.

He said the two sports that Malaysia will not be participating in are boxing and netball.

“Today I had the opportunity to visit training camps in three places, namely swimming, gymnastics and finally para athletics. Alhamdulillah, the training programme in preparation for the 2026 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow is going well and smoothly.

“Our athletes are also in good health and have good spirits. God willing, they will go there with fighting spirit and high spirits to bring success to the country,” he said when met after the CDM’s visit to the sports training venue at the National Sports Council, Bukit Jalil here, today.

Awal said Glasgow 2026 is considered unique because the number of sports has been reduced to 10 compared to the usual 17 to 18 sports in the previous edition.

He said that apart from the smaller number of sports, several events in the contested sports have also been scaled down, thus seeing lower medal offers compared to previous editions.

“In terms of targets, we will discuss later, but I expect them to do their best. We have identified sports that can bring medals to the country,” he said.

Meanwhile, Awalan said the absence of a Sports Village in this edition is not a major obstacle for the national contingent because the arrangement of athletes’ placement has been planned according to hotel clusters near the competition venues.

Previously, Youth and Sports Minister Dr Mohammed Taufiq Johari said the official announcement of the Glasgow 2026 medal target is expected to be made a few days before the Malaysian contingent’s flag handover ceremony scheduled to take place on July 16.

Glasgow 2026 is scheduled to take place from July 23 to August 2 and will feature 10 sports, including athletics, swimming, track cycling, lawn bowling, boxing, judo and weightlifting, in addition to six integrated para sports.

For the record, Malaysia won seven gold, eight silver and eight bronze in the 2022 edition in Birmingham, England. However, a tougher challenge awaits in Glasgow 2026 when four of the gold medals come from sports that are no longer listed this time. — Bernama