KUALA LUMPUR — The medal target for the Malaysian contingent to the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou will be set after evaluating national athletes’ performance in several tournaments until the beginning of next month.
The National Sports Council (NSC) said in a statement today that the target will then be announced by the Chef-de-Mission (CDM) Datuk Chong Kim Fatt during the Jalur Gemilang handover ceremony to the national contingent.
Usually, the medal target for sports festivals such as the SEA Games and the Asian Games will be announced by the Minister of Youth and Sports.
Among the tournaments that medal hopefuls will participate in as a final preparation before going to Hangzhou are the World Championships in Valencia from Aug 23-27 for gymnastics and the Asian Track Cup Cycling Championships in Thailand (Aug 26-30).
For badminton, national shuttlers will participate in the China Open (Sept 5-10) and Hong Kong Open (Sept 12-17), while squash players will compete in several competitions in Qatar and the United States.
Earlier, representatives from 26 national sports associations involved with the Asian Games together with the Olympic Council of Malaysian (OCM), the National Sports Institute (NSI) and other stakeholders attended a target-setting workshop organised by the NSC today.
It is to identify the ability and latest performance of the national athletes to be used as a measure of the ability to win medals.
“Also focused on at the workshop is the evaluation of the latest performance of the athletes from other countries who pose a challenge to the potential medal winners in the national contingent,” according to NSC.
A total of 415 people, including 292 athletes (191 men and 101 women) and 123 coaches and officials will represent the national contingent to the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games (postponed from September 2022 due to Covid-19) in China from Sept 23 to Oct 8 (2023). – Bernama
