Move to engage foreign coach marginalises locals — Nazmizan

KANGAR: The Malaysian Athletics Union (MAU) and the National Sports Council (MSN) have been urged to give more thoughts before going ahead to obtain the service of a coach from the United States to train national athletes.

Former Southeast Asian sprint champion, Nazmizan Muhammad said the appointment of a foreign coach would only deny qualified local talents the opportunity to serve.

“The selection of a coach from the U.S. or any other countries would involve much bigger expenditure such as higher wages and other benefits. In my view, we should give the chance to eligible local coaches with excellent record.

“We should give the opportunity to qualified local coaches to participate in courses to enhance their skills,” Nazmizan told Bernama here yesterday.

Recently, Bernama reported that MAU is proposing to MSN to engage an American coach in the mission to defend the eight SEA Games gold medals and revive Malaysia as an athletics power in the Asian Games.

MAU president Datuk Karim Ibrahim hoped MSN director-general Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail would respond positively on the matter.

The union had earlier wanted to hire U.S. sprinter, Dwayne Millers but failed to reach a consensus with MSN since last year.

He said national sprinter coaches such as Mohd Poad Md Kassim is the best example as he had successfully trained and produced many high standard athletes who have brought honours to the country.

Nazmizan who is also Universiti Malaysia Perlis (UniMAP) Sports Centre deputy director said many local coaches have certificates from the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) mean they are qualified to train national athletes. - Bernama