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KUALA LUMPUR – The National Sports Council (NSC) is expecting a hard time in preparing national athletes for three major sporting events next year due to lack of allocations.
NSC director-general Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail said the country’s current financial standings have hampered preparations for the 2021 South East Asian Games in Hanoi, Vietnam; the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, United Kingdom, and the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China.
“2021 has passed, and 2022 will see us facing much bigger challenges. Three major games await the Malaysian contingent – the SEA Games, Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games.
“These are the three major competitions and we also face constraints as the country’s financial position is still recovering, causing us (NSC) to be unable to secure adequate funding,” he said in a video of the country’s national sports achievements of the year broadcast by the NSC today.
Despite the constraints, he said things have to move forward and the council remained committed to providing the best in preparing the country’s athletes towards sports excellence.
“We have the strength, the only thing we have to do now is to earn the honours, we have to move forward to ensure we secure the achievements in 2022,” he said.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Shapawi said the council faced a daunting task in organising the 2022 Malaysia Games (Sukma) and to ensure Sukma remains as the most important sporting event in the country.
“That is another challenge, to ensure that Sukma remains the foremost sporting event in Malaysia where we unearth new athletes and it becomes the most anticipated sports event by all, especially young talent who will become national athletes in the future,” he added.
Last October, the Sukma supreme committee decided that the 2020 Sukma in Johor, scheduled to take place from April 2 to 10 this year, would be postponed to 2024, before they relented and allowed NSC to organise the 2022 Sukma and Para Sukma in Kuala Lumpur. – Bernama, January 1, 2022