Blanket criterion for selection needs a review

10/11/1998

THE National Sports Council's (NSC) push for a fixed qualifying standard
for all major sports events is not a viable solution to lift sport in
Malaysia.
Chances of a backfire in the long run loom large.
The current practice of making certain, usually third, placings in the
last edition as the criterion would be assigned to the history books if
NSC's proposal is accepted by the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM).
NSC director-general Datuk Mazlan Ahmad is not keen on a regression
after the euphoria of the 10 gold medals won at the KL Commonwealth Games.
"We must look forward since we will be bidding to host the 2006 Asian
Games and the 2008 Olympics. We hope to have the new guidelines ready by
January so the athletes preparing for the Brunei Sea Games can start
preparing early," he said on Sunday.
(OCM secretary Sieh Kok Chi is overseas and not available for comment).
If and when the plan is initiated, the biggest losers will be the
`minor' sports struggling to make a name in the international arena.
Sports like badminton, bowling, squash and hockey have qualified for a
number of major international events over the years and some have even
brought home fame and a handful of gold medals. They started from the
bottom, somebody gave them a break and they progressed steadily over the
years.
Something the new criterion will not grant.
NSC will set up a special task force to look into establishing a clear
guideline for the selection of Malaysian athletes for the Olympics,
Commonwealth Games, Asiad and Sea Games.
For a start, the criterion to make the Brunei Sea Games will be based on
a fair standard achieved at the Bangkok Asian Games, which might just be a
mite unfair to a large number of sports.
If the new criterion is implemented in January, as suggested by Mazlan,
athletics, basketball, table-tennis, cycling, gymnastics, weightlifting,
swimming ... and an endless number of associations will surely be at
loggerheads with the OCM selection committee when the time comes to select
the Brunei Sea Games contingent.
And some of these sports were the ones that contributed medals at the
Jakarta Sea Games. Athletics, for one, contributed 16 golds to the
Malaysian tally but when the stricter selection criterion comes to effect,
some of the previous medal winners might find themselves shut out for
good.
This goes to show how important the Sea Games is as a morale-booster for
sports struggling to gain popularity. Here, they have a chance of winning
medals and gaining experience. Hence the need to have different selection
standards for each international assignment and not have a blanket rule
which may suffocate a few associations in the long run.
There must be some form of quality control, but at the same time there
must be fairness in the selection criterion so as not to demoralise the
athletes. The task force must establish a transparent qualifying standard
with a certain time frame so that athletes will have ample time to
prepare.
There are also numerous questions to be answered before stampeding
headlong into the guidelines to be formulated by the NSC task force.
For instance, how and when will the athletes be selected? Will the task
force suggest to the OCM to judge by their current form or would the
athletes' past performance be considered good enough?
If the past if good enough, how many years can the mark be used to
select athletes? One or two years before the event may be too long a time
frame, so do we have proper selection trials?
National jumper Loo Kum Zee leapt to a national mark of 2.24m at the
1995 Chiangmai Sea Games but since then, has yet to come close to the
mark. Is it still a valid mark?
If yes, the 20.92s clocked by Datuk Dr M. Jegathesan in 1968, which
still stands as the 200m national record, should be a valid criterion if
Jegathesan suddenly decides to represent Malaysia at the 2006 Asian Games
and the 2008 Olympics.
(END)