KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 26 — If the proposal to send young athletes to the 2021 SEA Games can be realised, the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) will change the criteria for the selection of athletes to the biennial sports festival
According to the qualification criteria prior to this, athletes had to pass the best achievement of the previous three SEA Games, but the criteria needed to be amended if young athletes or athletes from the Malaysian Games (Sukma) are to be sent to represent the country at the Vietnam SEA Games in November 2021.
OCM president, Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria said the amendments would be finalised by the end of the year through discussions with the National Sports Council (NSC), based on input and feed-back received by OCM, after holding one to one meetings with all the national sports asociations (NSA) recently.
“The suggestion whether to send young athletes has triggered a debate because the SEA Games is a development and friendship sport. Some NSA agreed, some don’t and some want a combination of senior and junior athletes.
‘‘If we want to gamble on young athletes, we must change the criteria. We will come up with an amended criteria by the end of the year, by the time Vietnam confirms the list of sports to be contested,” he said after a 194th OCM council meeting at Wisma OCM here, today.
Vietnam was expected to announce a list of events to be contested at the Hanoi SEA Games in November, after receiving appeals from competing countries to add several sports to the 36 types of sports announced prior to this.
Meanwhile, Mohamad Norza said OCM had discussed with the Youth and Sports Minister, Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican on a proposal to help the sports industry which was affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
‘‘We do not want them to disappear from the map due to the absence of income generating activities. We have discussed with the minister to forward to Finance Minister Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Abdul Aziz on incentives and schemes that can be looked into to rejuvenate the sports industry through the 2021 Budget,’’ he said. — Bernama
