OCM LOOKING AT 40 PER CENT SAVINGS

Tougher for Malaysians to qualify for Asian Games

THE move by the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) to tighten the qualifying criterion for the Asian Games is expected to save the government up to 40 per cent in costs.

This is based on early prediction after two days of meetings by the selection committee involving 28 sports.

From the first filtration process, 139 athletes managed to place themselves in category A for the Asian continent’s largest sporting meet where the cost is covered fully while 148 athletes were in category B, where the cost is borne by the respective sports associations.

The smaller number of athletes in category A came after OCM’s decision to tighten the criterion where athletes need to be ranked in the top four in Asia compared to the previous requirement of being in the top six.

Among the big names affected by such a drastic move is track cyclist Fatehah Mustapha, who has become the first athlete from the elite Podium Programme to be dropped.

OCM are expected to save more than RM1 million with the move to downgrade more national athletes to category B because it is estimated that the cost to send an athlete and an official to the Games (from August 18-Sept 2) is around US$50 (RM198) a day.

With the cost for athletes who fall under category B being borne by their respective sporting association, this means as much as US$800 (RM3,180) can be saved for each athlete throughout the 16-day Games, and this does not include transportation cost.

However the amount of savings is expected to be even more as there are still nine sports that will be discussed today. They are: hockey, ping pong, paragliding, canoeing, rowing, volleyball, boxing, wushu, and e-sports.

According to OCM secretarygeneral, Datuk Mohd Nazifuddin Najib, even though the size of the contingent this time round will be much bigger compared to the 2014 edition in Incheon, South Korea, they are still more than satisfied because they have managed to trim the earlier list of athletes from each sports association.

“Most of the athletes did not qualify to be listed under category A because of the new criterion and we believe that even more athletes who fall under category B will withdraw because they cannot afford to bear the expenses.

“We estimate that only 350 athletes will make it to the Games this time compared to the earlier figure predicted that was more than 400 athletes. So there is a significant reduction here.”