PUTRAJAYA: The government has approved an allocation of RM118 million for the implementation of the new national athletes training programme this year, said Sports Minister Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman.
He said the allocation, which is RM28 million more than the amount approved last year, was agreed upon after taking into account the financial standings of the National Sports Council (NSC) and National Sports Institute (NSI), which play vital roles in implementing the national athletes training programmes.
“Several proposals were forwarded after seeing the financial situations of the NSC and NSI, which resulted in us having to make a few difficult decisions.
“Once the decisions were made, we quickly negotiated with the Prime Minister (Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad) and Lim Guan Eng (the Finance Minister) to discuss the additional allocation, which is closely linked to high-performance sports in training athletes who will represent the country on the international stage.
“After the discussions, there were a few very good decisions made over the last two weeks. Firstly, the additional allocation for high-performance sports,” he told reporters at a press conference on the restructuring of the national athletes training programme here earlier today (Wednesday).
He said the 2019 athletes training programme would continue to be called the Podium Programme to inspire athletes to get on the podium in any sports tournaments or events they compete in.
He added that the programme would be fully handled by NSC and would focus on five major sporting events, namely the 2020 Tokyo Olympics/Paralympics 2020; 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games; 2022 Hanzhou Asian/Para Asian Games; as well as this year’s Manila and 2021 Vietnam Sea/Para Asean Games.
The new Podium Programme involves 645 national athletes, comprising 503 able-bodied athletes and 142 para athletes. Of the total, 133 are existing Podium Programme athletes; 409 are Kita Juara athletes; and 103 are new athletes yet to join any programme.
Syed Saddiq said that despite the restructuring of the Podium Programme, the main aim was still to get Malaysia’s first Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in next year.
“The Olympic gold medal target is still the same, it’s just that this time we are giving special emphasis on young athletes so that they will have the space and opportunity to prove their capability. Who knows if there is a hidden gem who can suddenly deliver (the medal),” he said.
Under the new Podium Programme, the NSC has been instructed to ensure that the needs of the athletes, such as exposure to training and competitions, equipment and coaching, are met in compliance with the requirements approved by the working committee and sports associations.
A total of 548 local and overseas exposure stints — 394 competitions and 154 training stints — have been approved and, at the same time, 113 development programmes involving motivational and team building camps have also been planned.
The NSI has been told to upgrade its Sports Science and Sports Medicine services which is required by athletes under the programme.
The NSI has also approved 185 services, which include biomechanics, sports analysis, sports psychology, sports physiology, sports nutrition and physical fitness. Bernama