September decision on fate of underperforming RTG athletes - Yeoh

PUTRAJAYA - The Road To Gold (RTG) athletes who underperform will know in September whether they are retained or dropped from the Olympic programme.

Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said the programme’s evaluation committee would meet to discuss the performance of athletes in the RTG programme, which was introduced by the Ministry of Youth and Sports (KBS) in March, in the country’s quest for its first gold medal at the Olympic Games.

"We have technical advisors and former athletes in the RTG that we established for the two Olympic cycles (Paris Olympics and Los Angeles Olympics) whose role is to provide support services to the athletes.

"They (athletes) need support to achieve results, that’s why we are giving until September for the coaches to do their job (training the athletes),” she said at the 30th-anniversary celebration of Al-Ikhsan Sports Retail stores here today.

She said this when asked about the lacklustre run of national professional men’s singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia, who was shown an early exit when he lost to Hong Kong player Ng Ka Long in the first round of the 2023 Korea Open at Jinnam Stadium, Yeosu, in South Korea yesterday.

National diving queen Datuk Pandelela Rinong is another RTG athlete who has underperformed after failing to get past the qualifying round of her pet event, the women’s 10-metre (m) platform at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan on Tuesday.

In another development, Hannah said Malaysia does not intend to step in as successor to the state of Victoria in Australia which has withdrawn as host of the 2026 Commonwealth Games.

"What we are talking about now is the organisation of the 2027 SEA Games. We are making preparations to complete the paperwork and present it to the Cabinet to make sure we have enough funds.

"We have to know in depth why Australia withdrew, we cannot say that because Australia withdrew, this is an opportunity for us. If Australia is not able to..., are we able to implement it?” she said.

Yesterday, the media reported that Victoria decided to withdraw as host of the 2026 Commonwealth Games due to the high cost of organisation. - Bernama