Only local meets for athletes this year

The qualifying campaign for the 2021 Tokyo Olympics will resume on Dec 1 but Malaysian track and field athletes will only get to start next year.

Most major tournaments that serve as qualifiers for Tokyo are only expected to begin next year and the uncertainty over crossing international borders travel is making things doubly difficult.

With no meets lined up, the national athletes could be lining up for local competitions before the end of the year.

National athletics head coach Mohd Manshahar Abdul Jalil said the national squad will start training at the National Sports Complex in Bukit Jalil in the next few days after only training at home since March.

“It seems most likely that we will only have domestic tournaments before taking part in tournaments abroad next year ... everything still depends on the Covid-19 situation and the government’s approval,” said Manshahar.

“We will focus on conditioning, fitness testing, and building physical strength for now. There is no point in pushing the athletes too early because are no major championships until next year.”

Several athletes, including long jumper Andre Anura Anuar, triple jumper Mohd Hakimi Ismail, and high jumpers Lee Hup Wei and Nauraj Singh Randhawa, could earn slots to the Olympics which have been rescheduled to July, 2021.

A total of 24 Podium Programme athletes and 10 back-up athletes have reported to Bukit Jalil until on Monday and had their Covid-19 swab test done yesterday, and will have to wait for the results before starting training at NSC.

Manshahar reminded that all athletes are required to adhere to the standard operating procedures (SOPs) issued by the National Sports Council (NSC).

“The SOPs include social distancing, temperature checks before training, and maintaining good hygiene practices. For example, when training on the track, they have to keep one lane free between two athletes,” he said.