KUALA LUMPUR, May 29 — The Malaysian contingent’s Chef-De-Mission for the 2024 Paris Olympics, Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin urged all parties to stop blaming Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh for the failure of the Malaysian contingent at the recently concluded 2023 Cambodia SEA Games.

Hamidin, who is also the Football Association of Malaysia (FAM) president and Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) deputy president, said Hannah had been working very hard since her appointment as the Youth and Sports Minister but there wasn’t enough time on her side.

Based on the failure of the Malaysian contingent to achieve the 40-gold medal target in Cambodia, Hamidin said the focus must be on the National Sports Council (NSC) to improve the performances of National athletes after managing only 34 gold medals.

“She (Hannah) has been working tirelessly until today. We cannot simply blame her because it has only been six months since she was appointed as the Minister. Almost every day she met presidents of National Sports Associations,” he told reporters when met after a sponsorship agreement signing between Milo and OCM, here today.

“Here, the NSC must take responsibility because they are the ones who are collaborating with the associations for the preparation of athletes. We will look at the weaknesses that need to be rectified before the 2025 SEA Games and the 2027 SEA Games because NSC is responsible for handling the funding,” he said.

The Malaysian contingent returned home from Cambodia with 34 gold, 45 silver and 97 bronze after finishing in seventh position overall, lagging behind Cambodia, the Philippines and even Singapore.

The achievement was regarded as the worst in the history of the Malaysian contingent’s participation in the SEA Games after the 31-gold medal achievement during the 1995 Chiangmai SEA Games hosted by Thailand.

Last year, the Malaysian contingent collected 39 gold medals to finish in sixth position during the 2021 Vietnam SEA Games which was eventually held last year due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Following the debacle, a number of parties had been calling out for Hannah to apologise for the failure in Cambodia while some questioned the Segambut Member of Parliament’s statement that the poor performance may have been due to the unstable political condition.

Meanwhile, Hamidin expressed satisfaction with the commitment of Milo to continue offering its support for the development of sports in the country consistently through the sponsorship agreement which runs till 2028 while assistance would be channeled for the preparation of athletes for the 2024 Paris Olympics and the 2024 Paris Paralympics.

The sponsorship agreement was signed by OCM secretary-general Datuk Mohd Nazifuddin Najib and Milo’s Marketing Executive Officer Ng Su Yen and witnessed by Nestle (Malaysia) Berhad chief executive officer Juan Aranols and Hamdin.

The event was also attended by former sports legends, elite sportsman and sportswomen like Tan Sri M Jegathesan (athletics), Annie Choong (athletics), Datuk Soh Chin Aun (football), Nurul Huda Abdullah (swimming), Datuk Rashid Sidek (badminton), Ng Shu Wai (gymnastics) and Datuk Pandelela Rinong (diving). — Bernama