PUTRAJAYA - Badminton players dominated the list of athletes in the Road to Gold (RTG) programme implemented to hunt for the elusive maiden gold medal for Malaysia at the Olympics Games in Paris, next year.
Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said from the 15 athletes selected in the RTG programme, 11 are shuttlers, namely the men's doubles bronze medalist of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik; national men's singles player Lee Zii Jia; and women's doubles Pearly Tan-M. Thinah.
Three professional doubles pairs are also on the list, namely two representatives from the mixed doubles camp, Tan Kian Meng-Lai Pei Jing and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie and the men's doubles, Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi.
Hannah said the rest of the athletes on the list are national track cyclist Datuk Mohd Azizulhasni Awang and his teammate Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom, as well as two divers - Datuk Pandelela Rinong and Nur Dhabitah Sabri.
The minister said the first meeting of the RTG committee yesterday had identified two main criteria for the potential athletes to be listed in the programme, with the first being Tokyo Olympics medalists and the second, being listed in the world’s top 10 in their sports.
Nevertheless, Hannah said the committee should give consideration to the existing podium athletes who have displayed excellent performance to participate in the programme as there has been no quota set for the list of athletes.
She said this was because the RTG programme would continue for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
"The list of athletes is expected to change when the qualifying tournaments for Paris 2024 begin and is subject to the approval of the RTG committee as well as periodic review and monitoring," he told a press conference here today.
Hannah said the RTG coordinator Stuart Ramalingam, along with three national sports legends who are also members of the committee, namely Datuk Nicol David, Datuk Lee Chong Wei and Datuk Mirnawan Nawawi, would meet with the athletes and their coaches in a month's time.
She said the meeting aimed at hearing the additional needs of the athletes in addition to getting their agreement and commitment to joining the programme.
When asked about the form of assistance to be given to athletes involved in the RTG programme, Hannah said that the needs of each athlete, including the required funds, differed from one another.
She said the RTG expenditure estimate can only be determined after a meeting with all the athletes involved and will be announced after being updated and approved by the committee.
However, she said there was no limit set for the expenditure of the programme for the time being.
At the same, Hannah said the former National Sports Council director-general Datuk Dr Ramlan Aziz and former national track cyclist Josiah Ng had been appointed as technical assistants to Stuart.
She said the RTG programme would also adopt the National Sports Institute's dashboard which uses the Athlete Management System (AMS) to analyse the performance and lifestyle of the athletes involved.
Meanwhile, Stuart believed Dr Ramlan and Josiah can help the RTG committee especially in sharing the technical aspects of the athletes since both of them have extensive experience in sports.
Regarding the process of monitoring athletes, including four national badminton professional representatives, Stuart said it will be done by the RTG committee after the athletes involved inform them of their needs. - BERNAMA