KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia must build its talent identification (TID) programmes nationwide to discover new para athletes for the future, according to Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh.
For three Paralympic cycles, Malaysia has heavily relied on para-athletes Datuk Abdul Latif Romly (long jump), Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli (shot put), Cheah Liek Hou (badminton), and Bonnie Bunyau Gustin (powerlifting) to secure gold.
While these athletes have made the nation proud and served as true inspirations, it is unreasonable to continue depending solely on them. In addition to this, the Para Sukma in Sarawak, scheduled for September 23 to 28, is one of the sporting events the ministry intends to leverage.
“I must congratulate the Paralympic Council of Malaysia (PCM) and the Federal Territories’ Education Department for successfully organising this mini championship,” Hannah said after the Para Athletics Mini Championship in Setiawangsa recently.
These special needs students have been selected from around 70 schools across the Federal Territories, specifically for athletics.
“Athletics, along with swimming and combat sports, are key focuses for the high-level committee,” she added.
At the same time, Hannah said that from the recent Paris Paralympics, it was clear that athletics remains the key factor for the medals. The ministry, through the Youth and Sports Department, needs to do much more in terms of talent identification to discover future potential athletes.
“We can no longer rely solely on our four para athletes (Latif, Ziyad, Liek Hou, and Bonnie) to deliver medals. That’s why events like this and the upcoming Para Sukma in Sarawak are so important to us. Starting next year, we need to hold more TID programmes across the country,” she added.
Malaysia ended its Paralympics campaign in Paris with two gold medals, won by Liek Hou and Bonnie, who both successfully defended their men’s singles SU5 (standing upper impairment) and men’s 72kg titles respectively, after winning them three years ago in Tokyo.
The country also secured two silver medals from former gold medallists Latif and Ziyad (both intellectual disability), while debutant Eddy Bernard claimed a bronze in the men’s 100m T44 race.
Meanwhile, chef de mission (CDM) to the Malaysian contingent, Datuk R. Subramaniam, expressed his support for Hannah’s initiatives.
In a brief message to Scoop, Subramaniam, who is also PCM’s secretary-general, said that the approach should be similar to what was done yesterday at the Para Athletics Mini Championship.
“Grassroots development needs to be a collaboration between schools (which have the athletes), state sports associations (which have the expertise and receive funding for activities), sponsors (lifelong partners in sports), and PCM, which can coordinate and bring all parties together.
“Para sports development is different from able-bodied sports. Para athletes need to be handled differently, with an outreach strategy to help them break free from their ‘self-imposed prison’. This is the perfect model,” he said.
Meanwhile, Hannah revealed that last year, the government approved RM40 million for the National Podium Programme, with RM10 million allocated for para sports development.
Given the success of Malaysia’s para-athletes on the international stage, Hannah is confident that she will be able to secure a larger budget for 2025. – September 13, 2024
