KUALA LUMPUR, June 24 (Bernama) — The RM1 million incentive announced by the government for the Olympic-bound athletes who bag the country’s first-ever gold medal at the Beijing Olympics, is a great motivator for them to excel, said Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) deputy president Datum M. Jegathesan.

He said the handsome incentive would further motivate the athletes who will be competing in ten sports at the world’s biggest games.

“With the announcement, I firmly believed our athletes will strive harder to win the country’s first-ever gold medal,” he said, adding the incentive was considered to be the highest if compared to other countries.

M. Jegathesan told this to reporters after attending an OCM Selection Committee meeting held at Wisma OCM here Tuesday.

On top of the RM1 million incentive announced by Deputy Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Tun Razak after chairing a Cabinet Committee on Sports Development meeting here today, athletes who win a silver medal will get RM300,000 and RM100,000 for the bronze.

Teams that win a gold medal will be rewarded RM150,000 each player. The monthly pension for Olympic medal winners will also be increased from RM3,000 to RM5,000 for gold medallists, RM1,500 to RM3,000 for silver medallists and RM1,000 to RM2,000 for bronze medallists.

M. Jegathesan said OCM had endorsed 33 athletes who respectively had qualified for the Beijing Olympics this August.

“However, the actual number of the Olympic-bound athletes will be finalised at the end of this month. We have two top national swimmers and a sailor who are still competing to qualify to the games this month,” he said.

The two swimmers are Foo Jian Beng and Marellyn Liew and Rufina Tan for sailing.

The following are the athletes who have qualified for the Beijing Olympic Games:

1. Archery — Cheng Chu Sian, Muhammad Marbawi Sulaiman, and Wan Mohd Khalmizan Wan Abdul Aziz.

2. Diving — Bryan Nickson Lomas, Leong Mun Yee, Elizabeth Jimie and Pandelela Rinong Pang.

3. Swimming — Daniel William Bego, Siow Yi Ting, Khoo Cai Lin, Lew Yih Wey, and Leung Chii Lin.

4. Athletics — Roslinda Samsu (women’s Pole Vault), Yuan Yu Fang (women’s 20km walk), and Lee Hup Wei (men’s high jump).

5. Badminton — Men: Lee Chong Wei (singles), Wong Choong Hann (singles), Koo Kien Keat (doubles), Tan Boon Heong (doubles), Lee Wan Wah (doubles), and Choong Tan Fook (Doubles).

Women: Wong Mew Choo (singles), Wong Pei Tty (doubles), and Chin Ee Hui (doubles).

6. Cycling — Azizul Hasni Awang, Josiah Ng, Mohd Edrus Yunus, and Rizal Tisin.

7. Sailing — Dr. Kevin Lim (Laser).

8. Shooting — Hasli Izwan Amir Hasan (men’s 25m rapid pistol fire).

9. Taekwondo — Elaine Teo Shueh Fhern (women’s below 57kg) and Che Chew Chan (below 67kg).

10. Weighlifting — Amirul Hamizan Ibrahim (men’s below 56kg).

– BERNAMA

KUALA LUMPUR, June 28 (Bernama) -Eight countries will send their track athletes to the Pre-Olympic and National Closed Athletics Championship to be held at Bukit Jalil on July 4 and 5 as a warm-up session.
Deputy president of the Malaysian Amateur Athletics Union (MAAU) Karim Ibrahim said the eight countries were Brunei Darussalam, Taiwan, Thailand, the Philippines, Laos, Botswana, India and Singapore.
“What’s interesting is that Botswana and India will send eight and four athletes respectively who have qualified for the Beijing Olympic Games in August,” he told reporters at a press conference at the National Stadium, Bukit Jalil on Friday.

Karim said 14 states would send a total of 208 athletes to compete in the National Closed Athletics Championship. He said the championship offered the best opportunity for the national athletes to display their best performance and learn new techniques from the foreign athletes.

Meanwhile, Karim said three national athletes who had qualified for the Beijing Olympics, Roslinda Samsu (women’s pole vault), Yuan Yu Fang (20km walk), and Lee Hup Wei (men’s high jump), were currently undergoing training abroad.

Roslinda is now undergoing training and participating in local competitions in Spain until July 30.
National high-jumper Lee will undergo training and take part in local competitions in Finland from July 6 to 25 while Yuan will undergo training in the Kunming Province, China until the Beijing Olympic Games in August.

These are the Latest Athletics Records set at the Sukma Games 2008 in Terenganu.

KUALA TERENGGANU (7 June 2008) – Sabah’s Rayzamsyah Wan Sofian powered his way to the men’s 110m hurdles gold with a new games record time of 14.10s to retain his title he won at the last SUKMA in Kedah in 2006.

It was a smashing run by the 20-year-old Sabahan which saw him erase the old record of 14.24s which was held by Mohd Faiz Muhammad of Negri Sembilan sent in 2004.

The up and coming hurdler’s winning time in Kedah was 14.51s.

His personal best is 13.89s he recorded at the Asian Junior Championships in China in 2006 which won him a silver medal.

The silver went to Terengganu’s Mohd Muslim Sidek in 14.79s and Johor’s Mohd Rohaizad Jamil (14.9s) took the bronze. (more…)

KUALA TERENGGANU (6 June 2008) – The track was good, the environment was good and the wind conditions were perfect at the new Sultan Mizan Zainal Abidin Stadium in Gong Badak for Johor lass Kathleen Ong to break the pole vault SUKMA record.

But it was not to be for the 22-year-old and she is not complaining as she walked away with the gold despite clearing only 3.6m.

She was aiming to clear 3.76m to break Roslinda Samsu’s existing record of 3.75m set at the 2002 SUKMA in Penang but failed in her three attempts to clear 3.76. (more…)