Malaysian contingent told to surpass Glasgow achievement

PUTRAJAYA: Despite not putting any specific medal collection target, Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin wants the national contingent to the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia to beat their achievement of medals four year ago.

“The target under the Podium Programme is to achieve the top 10 position in overall medal tally.

“This means the target for gold medals must exceed that of Glasgow (2014). The working target is more than what we achieved in Glasgow which was six gold medals,” he told a media conference after handing over the national flag to the Gold Coastbound Malaysian contingent at the Youth and Sports Ministry yesterday.

Malaysia is sending a 178member contingent comprising 102 men and 76 women athletes with 95 officers.

In the 2014 edition in Glasgow, Scotland, the national contingent brought home six gold, seven silver and six bronze medals.

Khairy however refuted allegations by some quarters that his ministry did not focus on athlete preparation for the Commonwealth Games.

“After the outstanding success at the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games last year, many thought we will not give attention to athlete preparation for the Commonwealth Games.

“Actually, we have been preparing our athletes more intensively than SEA Games. This is the third largest sporting event after the Olympics and Asian Games. It is a championship which gauges the sports achievement of Malaysia,” he said.

On the selection of Muhammad Hakimi Ismail as the flag-bearer, Khairy said he was chosen with the agreement of all parties including the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM), National Sports Council (MSN) National Sports Institute (ISN), Podium Programme and so on.

“One of the reasons is that Hakimi is not a flag-bearer before but above that is his grit to improve after sustaining an injury...shows the character of what we are looking for,” he said

Muhammad Hakimi became the second triple jumper to be given the task after Mohd Zaki Sadri in the 1998 Kuala Lumpur Commonwealth Games.

The athlete who hailed from Taiping, Perak is the national record as well as the SEA Games record holder in the men's triple jump with a distance of 16.77m.