Saturday, November 22, 2008, 11.13 PM
|
|
Saturday, November 22, 2008, 11.13 PM |
|
 |
Sports is a great unifier, and how true it is as has been seen in Malaysia's Thomas Cup badminton campaigns since 1948, football's early Merdeka Tournament years and the much-remembered 1974 Kuala Lumpur World Cup hockey tournament, when Malaysians of every colour and creed got together to cheer on the national team, celebrated its victories and sympathised with it in defeat. The conduct of the sportsman or the team in their moment of glory is also inspiring to Malaysians, as Xinhua, the Chinese news agency, reported on Friday after Lee had beaten Lee Hyun-il of South Korea in the semi-final. "He kissed the Malaysian flag on his T-shirt and hugged his coach (former champion Misbun Sidek) in celebration of the hard-won success." Now Lee has to live up to the Olympic motto of "Citius, Altius, Fortius" to overcome raging local favourite Lin Dan to deliver Malaysia's first Olympic gold and pocket the RM1 million that the government is offering for the medal.
The government recognises the role that sports can play in unifying the nation, in promoting the nation abroad and in shaping up people to be healthy citizens, and it has invested heavily in sports facilities, funded national sports associations and helped in the training of sportsmen at home and abroad through the National Sports Council. But it is the responsibility of the sports associations to shape up sportsmen and teams into champions, like how squash has produced a world champion in Datuk Nicol David, and not like football where Malaysia is languishing at 162nd position in the world rankings. Clearly, football and the other troubled sports associations have to clean their Augean stables to fulfil their national duty.
|
|
 About NST | Contact Us | Advertising | Subscribe Online | Privacy Policy | How To Get There |
| Write to the Editor for editorial enquiry or Sales Department for sales and advertising enquiry. Copyright © 2008 NST Online. All rights reserved. |
