Taekwondo, weightlifting, sepak takraw out of ‘core sports’
three sports recently reinstated to this year’s Malaysia Games will still be dropped from the National Sports Council’s core sports list.
Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the decision made by the Malaysia Games supreme committee to reinstate taekwondo, weightlifting and sepak takraw following appeals from respective state sports councils would not spare them from being taken out of NSC’s list.
“The reinstatement is only valid for the Malaysia Games (in Perak),” said Khairy at the launch of 2018 Fit Malaysia in Port Dickson yesterday.
“The concerned sports will still be taken out of NSC’s programme and have their funds revoked, which means that they are expected to manage and run their associations independently,” he said.
Khairy said the reinstatement of the three sports to the Malaysia Games was made based on several conditions agreed by the concerned associations.
“For taekwondo, they must give opportunities to athletes not from the Malaysia Taekwondo Association (MTA) to participate in the National Championships.
“For weightlifting, they have to ensure that there are no more doping cases in the Malaysia Games or in any other tournaments. We will not tolerate and even one case recorded will see them out of the games in the future,” he said.
On sepak takraw, Khairy said the Malaysian Sepak Takraw Association had agreed to restructure their organisation and also provide long-term development programme to improve the performance of the sport.
“The recent announcement of these sports being dropped from Malaysia Games was a wake-up call. I hope this will be a new turning point for these sports to come back stronger and improve their performance in their respective sport category,” he added.