Games success due to Jaya '98 programme

03/10/1998

WEIGHTLIFTING was facing a natural death before the sport was incorporated
into the Jaya '98 programme in 1993 and it produced champions like Hidayat
Hamidon and Matin Guntali.
William Yeo, the present coach, last won a Sea Games gold back in 1977
after which the sport went into hibernation until Hidayat lifted a gold at
the Jakarta Sea Games last year.
"The Jaya '98 programme for weightlifting was on an ad-hoc basis because
we had difficulty in selecting promising lifters to be groomed. Nobody was
keen to take the sport seriously until the Jakarta Sea Games when its
potential in winning medals was unearthed," said National Sports Council
(NSC) director-general Datuk Mazlan Ahmad.
Mazlan should know, for weightlifting is one of the sports that is close
to his heart, one that he personally attended to.
NSC embarked on an ambitious programme which included the hiring of
foreign coaches from Europe and China and the distribution of
weightlifting equipment to centres of excellences in the States.
"We bought equipment and stationed coaches at centres in Terengganu,
Johor, Malacca, Sabah and Sarawak. We also extended help to centres in
other States.
"A Chinese coach is stationed in Rompin and a Bulgarian in Malacca while
local coaches man the centres in other States."
Now that Malaysia have committed themselves to bid for the 2008
Olympics, a new development plan will be formulated and a band of foreign
coaches will be hired.
"Weightlifting is a specialised sport which needs sports scientist with
credentials like Slava Lelikov to groom the lifters. Since we don't have
locals with such capabilities, we will continue hiring foreign coaches."
Lelikov took over the Jaya '98 lifters about six months before the Games
when Armanek Nalbandian died of a heart attack.
He continued the good work to make the weightlifters into medal winners
at the KL Games. His contract expired after the Games and the NSC are
still deciding on whether to rehire him.
The NSC are also looking to expand their centres of excellences with an
eye to introducing the sport at the Bukit Jalil and Bandar Penawar Sports
Schools.
(END)