INCHEON: Eight is enough. But will Malaysia achieve the eight-gold target at the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea?
The answer is NO.
Malaysia are competing in 25 out of the 36 sports contested. In total, there are 439 golds up for grabs.
Realistically, Malaysia have only gold chances in six sports – squash, cycling, wushu, karate, sailing and bowling.
It’s going to be a big comedown if Malaysia can’t fulfil the eight-gold target.
At the 2010 Games in Guangzhou, Malaysia achieved their best-ever medal haul with nine golds, 18 silvers and 14 bronzes. Then, five sports – squash (3), karate (2), bowling (2), cycling (1) and wushu (1) – were the contributors.
As soon as the Guangzhou Games ended, the National Sports Council (NSC) launched another four-year programme involving millions of ringgit in their bid to see better results in multi-event Games. Nineteen sports were included in the ambitious programme.
So far, the NSC have yet to see the desired results, with Malaysia failing miserably at last month’s Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
Seven golds were targeted at the Commonwealth Games but Malaysia could only deliver six through only three sports – weightlighting (1), badminton (3), squash (1) and diving (1).
The standard at the Asiad is definitely higher than the Commonwealths.
Over 500 athletes were involved in the four-year programme, but only 198 are deemed good enough to compete in Incheon.
There are another 82 athletes in the contingent but they are not a part of the programme.
Chef de mission Datuk Danyal Balagopal Abdullah is quitely confident of achieving the target. He is, however, not saying which sport will be the contributor.
“Why is it that gold medals should be the yardstick for success? There are many other factors we need to take into consideration. I would also like to see us increasing the silver and bronze counts. We must look at the success from an overall perspective and not just narrow it down to a gold medal,” he said.
“The athletes have prepared over four years and I believe that they deserve the chance to prove themselves. Let’s not put pressure on them for now. I remain confident that they will deliver and we will achieve the target.”
From the history point of view, Malaysia have steadily progressed in terms of the gold haul.
From a zero outing in Seoul in 1986, it went to two (1990 Beijing), four (1994 Hiroshima), five (1998 Bangkok), six (2002 Busan), eight (2006 Doha) and finally an all-time high of nine (2010 Guangzhou).
Ariffin Ghani, the NSC director for athlete’s preparations, also believes that the athletes will come good in Incheon.
“It (the four-year programme) has boreborne fruit in the past. Of course, there was some flak after the Glasgow Games but I believe the athletes will deliver here. This, of course, is the final competition for those under the current programme. And it goes without saying that the success will be gauged by the medal count,” he said.
Even Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the eight-gold target is reasonable – not too high and not too low.
The medal count will start on Saturday – with 13 sports being contested.
Our message to the athletes is: Prove us wrong!
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