OCM-Sports Toto awards for athletes

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 17 gold medallists from the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games and eight from the recent Asian Games in Incheon were awarded the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM)-Sports Toto Athletes of the Games Awards 2014 for their individual and team achievements.
The awards, which were given out today at the Sport Museum Hall of Fame here, recognised the outstanding effort by Malaysian athletes at this year's games.
Speaking at the award ceremony, OCM president Tunku Tan Sri Imran Tuanku Ja'afar said the Malaysian contingent did extremely well.
"The media had labelled the two games a failure. I do not think that 5 golds, 14 silver and 14 bronze medals at Incheon are a failure," he said.
He said the use of the word "failure" upset him, although he felt the athletes could have done better to turn those silver medals to gold.
Tunku Imran added that Malaysia's performances at both these games were of a very high standard and the athletes did their best to make the country proud.
"The respective sporting federations will have to do their analysis and research to see if they could have done better at these games and improve from there," he said.
Among the athletes who received the award today included Datuk Nicol David for her gold medal in Glasgow and two golds in Incheon for the women's squash singles, and the women squash team which comprised Low Wee Wern, Delia Arnold and Vanessa Raj.
Sports Toto communications manager Giam Say Khoon expressed hope that this gesture of appreciation from Sports Toto will serve as motivation for national athletes to do well in future games.