PETALING JAYA: Malaysia is set to send its largest contingent to the 2025 SEA Games with over 1,000 athletes ready to head to Thailand from Dec 9-20.
SEA Games chef de mission (CDM) Nurul Huda Abdullah said the large number of athletes was due to the fact that they will be participating in all 50 sports contested in Thailand.
"This will actually be the biggest contingent because we are participating in all 50 sports this time around, and a lot of the sports are team events," said Nurul during her visit to the table tennis team’s training at the National Sports Council (NSC) in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
"Naturally, with team events, we will have larger numbers. A lot of these sports also have not had the opportunity to participate in the last two editions of the SEA Games.
"With more Olympic and Asian level sports this time, we will be using this opportunity for the teams to gain more exposure to gain rankings at the South-East Asian level and also for next year’s competition preparations."
The former national swimmer added that with the large contingent and the games set to be held in three locations - Bangkok, Chonburi and Songkhla - logistics would be a challenge.
But she assured that the athletes would always be the priority.
"The athletes’ performance and well-being will be at the heart of every decision we make to ensure that they give their best performance.
"We will also be including two safeguarding officers within the contingent to make sure the athletes are supported if there are any issues that crop up," she said.
Seeing that some of the sports contested in Thailand are not under the NSC’s programmes, Nurul said the National Sports Institute (NSI) will conduct medical check-ups for all athletes.
