JAKARTA: Bowling, squash, cycling, sailing and sepak takraw shone in the Asian Games in Indonesia while badminton and silat were among the sports that failed to meet targets.
Although, Lee Chong Wei was not part of the badminton team, the contingent expected them to deliver at least two medals but none managed to finish on the podium despite most being world class players.
Although, the overall haul of seven gold, 13 silver and 16 bronze met the contingent’s target, only one title through cyclist Azizulhasni Awang in the men’s sprint was from an Olympic event.
Despite the huge investment on athletes under the Podium Programme, the failure to win gold in more Olympic events should be addressed by sports experts.
“We divided the Asian Games achievements into three (categories) comprising outstanding, satisfactory and unsatisfactory. From our initial evaluation, we have concluded that training programmes for badminton, karate, wushu and silat need to be re-evaluated,” said Chef de Mission Datuk Seri Abdul Azim Mohd Zabidi here on Sunday.
Azim also indicated that shooting, archery, athletics and swimming could also lose their Podium Programme spots for not meeting targets.
He proposed a revision for these sports.
“The technical aspects and judging of subjective sports should also be addressed,” he said.
None of the subjective sports contributed a gold in Indonesia.
Silat was denied three titles following claims of bias judging.
Azim, also the deputy president of the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM), said medal targets for subjective sports need to take account all possibilities before they are finalised for future games.
He disclosed that a post-mortem will be conducted with all the concerned associations to address weaknesses and come up with solutions ahead of the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
The Asian Games also saw six new national records in cycling’s team sprint, compound archery (two records) and swimming (three records).
Malaysia also booked two Olympic berths in sailing through Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy and Nur Shazrin Mohd Latif.
Overall, Malaysia competed in 35 sports and surpassed their 2014 achievement.
Outstanding: Tenpin bowling, squash, cycling, sailing, sepak takraw;
Satisfactory: Diving, men’s hockey, women’s hockey, equestrian, taekwondo, archery, football, basketball, rugby sevens, paragliding.
Unsatisfactory: Badminton, pencak silat, karate, wushu, shooting, swimming, artistic swimming, athletics, fencing, golf, judo, sambo, boxing, bridge, gymnastics, handball, jet ski, kabbadi, table tennis, canoe/kayak, roller sports, rowing, climbing, triathlon, beach volleyball.