SEPANG, Aug 14 — The Road to Gold (RTG) programme needs to be given adequate time to run its course for Malaysia to succeed in its mission to bag the first Olympic gold medal, opined national track cycling coach John Beasley.
He said the programme needs to be given the chance to continue uninterrupted and emphasised that it possibly needs at least another Olympic cycle to fully evaluate its effectiveness.
“This is an elite programme, understand that it is going to take time to build that gold medal performance.
“Give Malaysia that privilege to look after their best of the best, and I will guarantee it will reward you tenfold. But if you stop it, we start at the beginning all over again,” Beasley said, adding that stopping and starting initiatives in the past has stifled progress.
He was speaking to the press after returning from the 2024 Paris Olympics at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport yesterday.
The Australian said the RTG programme has so far succeeded in fulfilling the athletes’ needs in terms of equipment or emotional backing, and if continued, it is not a matter of ‘if’ Malaysia will manage to bring home a gold medal, it is just a matter of ‘when’.
“I think you can see what we started already. Even though we did not bring any gold, silver or bronze medals this time, but you saw the performance. There were some really good performances at this game, so please do not take that away from the athletes and the RTG programme,” Beasley said.
However, moving forward, the programme should only be made available for top athletes and avoid any interference from ‘politics’ to ensure it runs as it was intended.
RTG was introduced by the Youth and Sports Ministry last year as a national project to coordinate the country’s efforts in hunting for the maiden gold medal at the Olympic Games.
However, it has yet to bear fruit in the 2024 Paris Olympics, as the national contingent did not secure any gold medals and it brought back only two bronze medals through men’s singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia and men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik.
Meanwhile, Malaysian National Cycling Federation deputy president Datuk Amarjit Singh Gill hopes the minister will consider incorporating association members for the sports included in the programme to ensure good synergy among all its stakeholders.
He also hopes the programme can continue consistently without having to face concerns that it may be scrapped or changed by future administrations.
“I for one do not think it (RTG) is a failure for cycling. In some ways, it has been a success,” Amarjit said.
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