Extremely ‘foolish’ to axe events from 2017 Sea Games

Malaysia does not seem to have any plans to develop athletes in axed events where it doesn't have any medal contenders.

KUALA LUMPUR: Axing selected athletic events at the 2017 KL Sea Games shows extreme short sightedness, said Serdang MP Ong Kian Ming in a statement. “It was reported that the likely reason for this decision was due to the fact that Malaysia does not have any medal contenders in these events.”

He was commenting on Malaysia’s proposal to remove eight athletic events – the men’s and women’s marathon, the men’s and women’s 10000m, the men’s and women’s 3000m steeplechase, the decathlon and the heptathlon – from the 2017 South East Asian (SEA) games in Kuala Lumpur.

While the host country has some leeway in choosing to include or exclude certain events from the SEA games – think fencing (out) or speed skating (in) – it was unprecedented for the said events to be excluded from the line-up of athletic events, added the MP. “The men’s 10000m had been run since the first SEA games in 1959, the decathlon, 3000m steeple chase and marathon since 1965.”

“The women’s marathon debuted in 1983, the 10000m in 1987 and the heptathlon in 1965.”

An equivalent would be if a country decided to leave out mixed doubles from the badminton line-up because it did not have any medal contenders in this particular badminton event, lamented Ong. “There’s now talk that certain countries would boycott events such as the triple jump, high jump and the discus, all events where Malaysia has medal contenders.”

The authorities in charge, the Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) or the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM), should have anticipated the backlash from neighbouring countries, pointed out Ong. “Asia’s governing track authority, the Asian Athletics Association (AAA), has said that it would not sanction the holding of the athletics events at the SEA games in KL if the said events were excluded from the overall line-up.”

Ong reckons the excluded events will eventually be restored to the athletics line-up as a result of the public backlash and protests from other countries. “These countries have until the middle of March to file their official appeals.”

“The larger question, which this episode has revealed, was the fact that Malaysia does not seem to have any plans to develop athletes in the events where it doesn’t seem to have any medal contenders.”

This has not always been the case, reminded Ong.

Malaysian legend M. Ramachandran dominated the 10000m for almost a decade by bringing home the SEA games gold medal four times from 1993 to 1999.

Dlibagh Singh Kler won the 3000m steeple chase in three consecutive SEA games when the event was first introduced in 1965.

Mohd Malik Ahmad Tobias took home the decathlon gold twice, in 1999 and 2003.

Yuan Yufang, better known for her dominance in the 20km walk event, also took home the women’s 10000m gold medal in 1999.

Zaiton Othman took home three SEA games gold medals in the heptathlon in the 1980s.

At last weekend’s Tokyo Marathon, Edan Syah, achieved a personal best of 2 hours 38 minutes and 55 minutes and was the fastest Malaysian in the race. This timing would have placed Edan in 5th position at the 2015 Sea Games in Singapore.

“If the marathon was excluded from the 2017 SEA games, athletes like Edan would not know how they will fare against the best runners from the region,” said Ong.