UPROAR OVER SELECTION CRITERION

NSAs caught off guard by OCM’s move which was only announced yesterday

THE national sports associations (NSAs) are shocked with the Olympic Council of Malaysia’s (OCM) decision to tighten the selection for the Indonesia Asian Games.

Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia (Asum) honorary secretary Mae Chen said NSAs were only informed of the new criterion in OCM’s final Asian Games selection committee meeting yesterday.

“They (OCM) have just informed us that they have limited allocations. Now only those who make the top-four mark (of the 2014 Incheon edition) will go under category A (all-expenses paid),” said Mae.

“For me, it is not fair, especially for swimming which has the most number of events at 38. If we do not use this platform to provide our swimmers exposure, it would be tough to gauge their current level.”

Mae Chen noted that it is hard for Asum to obtain sponsorship at the moment due the advertising rules set by Fina.

“At the moment, we only have three swimmers (Welson Sim, Phee Jinq En, Tern Jian Han) who have been selected under category A from 12 in total,” she added.

National swimming team manager May Tan hopes OCM will revert to the top-six selection criterion.

BA of Malaysia (BAM) secretary general Datuk Ng Chin Chai said only 14 (10 men and four women) players have been selected under category A from the 20 shuttlers that were recommended.

“If we want to send players to compete in the team event as well as women’s singles and doubles, we can do so through category B,” said Chin Chai.

“I will discuss this (with the BAM management) first before making a decision on whether to do that.”

Malaysia Karate Federation (MAKAF) secretary general Vincent Chen, however, said he was not too worried about their athletes being listed under category A.

“We proved in Incheon that even our athletes (not under category A) could also win medals,” said Vincent.

“We, however, have not decided on the numbers for the category B ticket. We will send a list to OCM next week.”

A total of five karate athletes were selected under category A at yesterday’s meeting.