Malaysia, major player in wheelchair basketball
DESPITE missing the gold medal once again this time, Malaysia can be seen as one of the major powerhouses of wheelchair basketball in Southeast Asia besides Thailand.
National coach, Abbas Aghakoucheki Hossein said the team had improved by leaps and bounds compared to their performance in the 2015 Singapore Asean Para Games.
With this, he noted that Malaysia should now begin talent scouting to get players of various types.
“As a professional coach, I found that Malaysia have improved very well, and must continue this way.
“If we can continue, Malaysia can be a strong team in the next Asean Para Games, .
“As far as I’m concerned, Malaysia played well. But in this situation (versus Thailand), we lost out because we do not have tall players.
“It’s about time we found new talent and expose them to competitions,” he told reporters after the Malaysia-Thailand match yesterday.
Abbas, who was the Iran team coach for the Rio Paralympics, believed that Malaysia, with a population of over 30 million, would find talents who wanted to be part of the national team.
Malaysia lost to Thailand, 5670 in the gold medal match and with the victory, Thailand retained their gold medal in wheelchair basketball team event for six consecutive times.
Malaysia had to settle for silver and the Philippines took bronze after defeating Myanmar 49-41. The wheelchair basketball event was held on a round robin format.
Team captain Ahmad Nazri Hamzah said it was high time to scout for new talents, aged 23 and below, to compete in international tournaments and those keen can go to the Paralympic Excellence Centre in Kampung Pandan or meet with the coach or the relevant parties. Bernama