Malaysia can forget about winning Olympic gold

The Olympic rings erected in a park for people to enjoy during the 2012 London Games. - Reuters

WINNING the first Olympic gold in 2016 Rio de Janeiro is just going to be a pipe dream for Malaysia.

Just take a look at Malaysia’s five golds at the Incheon Asiad. All of them came from non-Olympic sports.

Squash gave two through Nicol David in the women’s singles and the team event. Karate also matched squash’s feat with Lim Chee Wei winning the men’s individual kata and Syakila Salni triumphing in the women’s kumite below 61kg.

Sailing contributed one gold through Faizal Norizan and Syukri Abdul Aziz in the men’s 420, but the event is unfortunately not contested in the Olympics.

Seriously, there is nothing to shout about in Malaysia’s performance in Incheon. Besides the five golds, Malaysia won 14 silvers and 14 bronzes to lie in 14th place in the medal tally.

But it is a different story for our South-East Asian rivals Thailand, Indonesia and Singapore. They can look forward with renewed confidence of their Olympic chances in two years’ time.

Thailand lead the way as the best performing country in the region with one day of competition left. The Thais have 12 golds to be comfortably positioned in sixth spot in the medal tally.

But more importantly, five of their golds came from Olympic disciplines.

The Thais produced winners in Olympic events for cycling (women’s road race and BMX), taekwondo (women’s below 49kg), boxing (men’s light welterweight) and tennis (women’s doubles).

Although Indonesia only won four golds so far, they are in good stead heading to Rio.

Two years after Indonesia returned without any medal in badminton from the London Olympics, the country’s sport administrators are smiling again after their shuttlers swept to victory in the men’s and women’s doubles in Incheon.

Polii Greysia-Nitya Krishinda of Indonesia were beaten by Malaysia’s Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei at the Myanmar SEA Games final last year but they got the upperhand against the Japanese and Chinese here in the women’s doubles while Mohd Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan will go to Rio as serious contenders now that they hold the Asian and world titles.

“We never failed to win a gold at the Olympics since badminton made its debut in Barcelona in 1992. London was the black spot and we are making sure we can get something this time in Rio,” said Rexy Mainaky, the former Malaysian coach who was coaxed to return to Indonesia to take up the technical coaching director position.

The Indonesians also rejoiced in athletics with woman long jumper Maria Londa earning their first track and field victory in the Asian Games in 16 years.

As for Singapore, they also have five golds. But they have an inferior silver collection to lie 15th, just a rung below Malaysia.

To date, Singapore have six silvers and 11 bronzes but they have the satisfaction of producing a gold medallist in swimming.

The 19-year-old Joseph Schooling broke the record in the 100m butterfly en route to delivering the republic’s first Asiad gold in men’s swimming since Ang Peng Siong’s 100m freestyle gold at the 1982 New Delhi Games.

And don’t be surprised if Schooling, who trains in the United States, delivers a historic medal for Singapore in Rio.

The Philippines only won one gold here, but it came through an Olympic event – the men’s BMX cycling.

Vietnam, however, did not do well at all. They also won a gold and it came from wushu, which is not an Olympic sport.