THE Malaysian Southeast Asian Games (SEA) contingent recently drew flak for recording its worst performance in terms of gold medal haul and actual position finish at the recently-concluded 2023 edition in Cambodia.
Recall that Malaysia finished in seventh place with a haul of 34 gold medals, 45 silver medals, and 97 bronze medals, which is their lowest ever, after occupying sixth place in the SEA Games in the Vietnam edition two years ago.
Malaysia also finished with the lowest gold medal haul ever in competition history since collecting 31 gold medals, 49 silver medals and 69 bronze medals overall in the 1995 edition in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
This has led to the 2023 SEA Games chef de mission (CDM) Datuk Mohd Nasir Ali issuing an apology to all Malaysians following the national contingent’s failure to hit the 40-gold target at the biennial games.
“I humbly apologise. The 40-gold medal target was something we hoped for but could not achieve. But winning 34 gold medals was also a great feat. I am confident that we can improve on it,” he told reporters.
In addition, Mohd Nasir reiterated his belief that the 40-gold target was achievable.
He stated that setting the aim of 40 gold medals was not taken lightly, as three meetings had already been held to finalise the number of gold medals that may potentially be gathered.
“We held three meetings so the target was not a last-minute thing and we also discussed the target with each association, so after this we need to go back to the associations and ask for an explanation,” he was quoted as saying.
Meanwhile, he was not convinced that a lack of preparation was the primary reason for the national contingent’s poor performance here, although he did agree that some sports had issues during the preparation period.
Without disclosing the specifics, Mohd Nasir pointed out that the main sports had indeed been prepared earlier, while some of the less popular sports were nonetheless given the opportunity to perform here despite their short preparation.
Mohd Nasir said Youth and Sport Minister Hannah Yeoh, together with Olympic Council of Malaysia president Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria, will hold a press conference on Friday to talk about the performance of the Malaysian contingent.
He said a detailed analysis of the Malaysia team’s performances would also be carried out. – May 18, 2023
Main pic credit: Bernama
