KUALA LUMPUR, July 1 — The Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) will make an appeal to the International Amateur Athletics Federation (IAAF) to enable Harun Rasheed to be reappointed as the national sprint coach.
The new MAF president, Datuk S. M. Muthu said that MAF would send a letter to the world athletics’ parent body soon to ask for a reduction in the 10 years suspension for Harun which still had two years to go.
‘‘I have met Harun and he had agreed that his name be nominated as coach to face the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines in November. We will write a letter of appeal to obtain the green light from IAAF,’’ he said when contacted by Bernama, today.
After beating the MAF incumbent president, Datuk Karim Ibrahim at the annual general meeting (AGM) of the parent body yesterday, Muthu said several local coaches would be appointed including Harun who was undergoing suspension for his involvement in a doping case.
The Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) in 2011 sentenced the former national sprint coach to a 10-year suspension on a charge of being the mastermind over an issue of six national athletes who ran away from doping tests.
Muthu said that he wanted to give a chance to Harun to return to the local athletics arena due to his excellent performance in training the national women’s 4X100m quartet comprising Siti Zubaidah Adabi, Nor Jannah Hafizah Jamaludin, Yee Yi Ling and Nurul Sarah Abdul Kadir to achieve an excellent result after 21 years, when he was the national coach from early 2010 to 2012.
The national quartet recorded a new national record of 45.33 seconds at the Poland Athletics Grand Prix Championship in July 2010.
But, Harun was implicated in the controversy following which he was suspended 10 years by CAS effective Sept 12, 2011.
In the meantime, Muthu said, to date, there was no proposal of the names of other local coaches because he wanted to get the views of national athletes before making the decision. — Bernama
