Wednesday, November 23, 2011

Under Achievers In Sea Games To Face The Music

PALEMBANG, Nov 22 (Bernama) -- Sports that failed to deliver the desired results at the just concluded SEA Games, held in Palembang and Jakarta over 11 days, are expected to incur the wrath of the National Sports Council (NSC) and the Ministry of Youth and Sports.

Malaysia may have surpassed NSC's 'cautious' target of 40 to 45 when the Malaysian contingent ended their campaign with 59 gold medals, the last one coming from football, but some sports failed to even come close to the expected results.

NSC director-general Datuk Zolkples Embong said though the medal haul was the second best outside the country, the failure of a number of sports to win gold medals would be reviewed.

"The 59 gold medals won in Indonesia is the second highest after the 68 gold medals won in Korat, Thailand. If sports like hockey, lawn bowls and squash were included, the haul would have been higher," he told Malaysian reporters here today when commenting on the overall performance of the Malaysian contingent.

Zolkples said of the 59 gold medals, 10 gold medals were contributed by sports that were not under the NSC development programme.



"Four of it came from water-ski, two from open sea swimming, two from fencing, men's 4x400m and one from snooker through Sam Chong," he said.

Aquatics was the biggest contributor with 19 gold medals through diving (7), swimming (5), synchronized swimming (5) and two from open sea swimming while athletics turned out to be the second highest with six gold medals.

Katrina Ann Abdul Hadi and Shareen Hui were the biggest winners for the Malaysian contingent by winning five gold medals each.

He said archery and shooting had performed moderately in the games.

Malaysia's 59 gold medals came from aquatics (19), athletics (6), tenpin bowling (5), water-ski (4), karate (4), cycling (4) wushu (3), silat (3), archery (2), shooting (2), fencing (2), billiards & snooker (1), football (1).

Malaysian athletes who competed in 38 of the 43 sports contested, also won 50 silver and 82 bronze medals to finish fourth on the list behind Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam in that order.

"Among sports that failed are gymnastics and sailing. We had expected a gold from both the sports," he said.

He said the performances of sepaktakraw and taekwondo would also be reviewed.

Meanwhile, host Indonesia ran away with the overall title with 182 gold, 151 silver, 142 bronze while 2009 overall champion Thailand was relegated to second place after collecting 108 gold, 100 silver, 120 bronze while surprise package Vietnam finished third with 96 gold, 91 silver and 100 bronze medals.

Indonesia which offered 553 gold medals through 43 sports that was held in Jakarta and Palembang ended today with a glittering ceremony at the Jakabaring Stadium in Palembang.

-- BERNAMA

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