OLYMPIC Council of Malaysia (OCM) president Tan Sri Norza Zakaria has slammed several national sports associations (NSAs) for being a burden to Malaysian contingents at multi-sport events and has urged them to buck up.
According to Norza, NSAs must be fair to the national contingent by not holding them back.
"There are NSAs who already have medium and long-term plans but some still continue to use the same old people and mindset. These are the people who bring down the contingent.
"Some stepped up to the challenge by sending in their young athletes, but there are still those who say it's unfair and chose to send senior athletes who have not improved," said Norza, who is also the BA of Malaysia (BAM) president.
Norza believes Malaysia must be brave (to expose younger athletes) in next year's Sea Games in Cambodia.
"The next Sea Games will be held after the Malaysia Games, and that should be our yardstick in assessing our young athletes.
"What is wrong with sending a young team? Naturally, the next step after the Malaysia Games is the Sea Games. We can't be relying on senior athletes forever because then we won't be good enough at the Asian Games or Olympics," he added.
Norza fears that Malaysia will not improve or worse still, regress further if changes are not forthcoming.
"If we don't change now, we will remain in sixth place, probably go down to seventh. We need to expand our talent pool and act fast.
"If we send our backup athletes and they give their best, we can appreciate that. However, we cannot do the same for those who do not deliver time after time yet give the same old excuses.
"Many NSAs have sent their young athletes for this year's Games, and we are proud of them, because they made it," Norza said.
Malaysia finished their campaign at the Hanoi Sea Games in sixth place after amassing 39 gold medals, three more than the initial target set by the Sports Ministry, 45 silver and 90 bronze.