Podium chief happy with team’s progress

GOLD COAST: Podium Programme director Tim Newenham is a taskmaster who is never happy when it comes to medals won in major championships.

Malaysia surpassed their target of winning more medals than 2014 Glasgow (6-7-6) with a haul of seven gold, five silver and 12 bronze.

However, the team failed to achieve their top 10 target by finishing 12th overall.

“We must always strive for more. However, our achievements here have to be a success story.

“It is a sign of progress been made,” said Newenham today.

“It is a good measure of things moving positively. We are on the right track for the Indonesia Asian Games but we shouldn’t be complacent. We will still do our reviews on all Podium athletes and find ways to further improve their performances.

“Frankly, we have already started analysing all details. We have compiled 500 pages of information on just the time here and we will go back and look at them.”

Newenham said some of the non-Podium athletes also produced great results in terms of recording personal bests and winning medals.

“We are here as a team. I know some talk about Podium athletes but we all come as one team.

“All athletes, regardless whether they are from Podium or not, share the same information, equipment and coaches.

“We will look at ways to forge a closer understanding for all athletes to benefit,” he added.