David Patrick hot favourite as new M'sian athletics head coach

KUALA LUMPUR:Retired American hurdler, David Patrick has been tipped to be appointed as the new national athletics head coach.

Malaysian Athletics Union (MAU) president, Datuk Karim Ibrahim revealed that Patrick, 58, is the top name being considered by the association, having tasted success in two disciplines — hurdles and the sprint during his glory days in late 1980 until early 1990's.

Karim, however, said that he would bring the matter up to the National Sports Council (NSC) director-general, Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail for further discussion as it would involved a huge sum of money to pay salary for the Illinoisnative.

“Besides the American, we also received applications from various candidates from several countries such as Ukraine, France, Africa and Jamaica.

“The requests to get the foreign coach came from our athletics coaches — Mohd Poad Md Kassim and M. Balamurugan who hoped to see our athletes would go beyond the ASEAN level,” he told a press conference.

Patrick is a household name in the athletics world where he won the silver medal in the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games besides winning the gold medal in the 1989 IAAF World Cup in Spain.

Commenting further, Karim said he had full confidence that Patrick would take the Malaysian athletics togreater heights if he takes up the job.

Meanwhile, Karim said MAU had selected 30 athletes to undergo the selection for the 2019 Philippines SEA Games, with only the best to be given the chance to represent the country.

He said potential athletes outside the national programme were also invited to take part in the selection, but it was up to the MAU and also the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) to make the final decision.

“Those numbers are not finalised yet as we will trim the numbers and we would submit the final name of qualified athletes to the Olympic Council of Malaysia, maybe in late July next year,” Karim added. - Bernama