A satisfactory outing in Bahrain

falling short of their 2017 haul, the Paralympic Council of Malaysia (PCM) are satisfied with the national contingent’s performance at the Asian Youth Para Games (AYPG) in Bahrain.

The national athletes concluded their campaign in Manama with a haul of 3-5-5.

In 2017 in Dubai, Malaysia had won five gold medals.

However, Malaysia managed more silver and bronze medals in the Bahrain edition.

PCM secretary-general First Admiral (Rtd) Datuk Subramaniam Raman Nair said preparations for the AYPG were not ideal due to Covid-19.

“All things considered, I believe it is a satisfactory result,” said Subramaniam yesterday.

“We could not accurately gauge the athletes’ level of performance when we selected a team due to lack of competitions over the last two years.

“We knew it would be tough for these athletes to perform well.

“However, it was important to send a contingent to continue our development efforts.

“PCM will be placing more emphasis on talent development from here on and will be going to the states to promote para-sports. This will allow us to identify new talent that can be further groomed by the National Sports Council (NSC).”

Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu had in September expressed his reluctance to send a contingent to Bahrain as no budget had been allocated for the games.

NSC, however, approved to send a small contingent of 13 athletes in late October.

The next edition will be held in Tashkent in 2025.

Malaysia's gold medals in Bahrain were delivered by swimmers Zy Kher Lee (men's 200m freestyle S1-5), Ong Jia Xuan (women's 100m breaststroke SB4-9) and table tennis player Gloria Gracia Wong (SF9-10).