Charity golf to help athletes

THE 15th Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM)-Tan Sri Alex Lee Charity Golf will tee off on Tuesday at Saujana Golf and Country Club.

The goal of the event is to help former and present national athletes.

Initiated in 1999 by Datuk Thomas Lee, its fund currently stands at RM1,241,043 with 47 athletes having benefited from it so far.

Athletes have received scholarships of RM3,000 each with the sum increased to RM5,000 from last year.

Recipients of the fund include track cyclist M. Kumaresan, who competed in the 1988 Seoul and 1992 Barcelona Olympics, G. Saravanan, the 1998 Commonwealth Games gold medallist in 50km walk, and five-time Sea Games high jump champion Loo Kum Zee.

When the fund was first set up, RM251,050 was raised in the first five months. However, by 2002, the fund dropped to around RM200,000.

The fund was named after Thomas’ brother, Alex who was a lawyer, banker, deputy minister, athlete and sports leader who died in 1999 following a scuba diving accident off the coast of Papua New Guinea.

This year, Saujana Golf and Country Club has come onboard to organise the annual charity golf tournament.

The first tournament was organised on June 23, 2003, raising a sum of RM25,000.

Eligibility for the competition is that national sports association (NSA) teams must be represented by at least one of its members.