Prioritise athletes' development, Najib tells sports associations

KUALA LUMPUR: Sports associations must place athletes' development above all else, said Prime Minister Datuk Seri Najib Abdul Razak.
The Prime Minister said this is to ensure that the athletes can bring glory to the nation through achievements on a bigger stage.
"Sports associations must not focus on its politics, instead they should focus on the success of the athletes.
"Our goal is to make Malaysia a sports powerhouse in this region. This is our ambition," Najib said in his speech at the handover ceremony of Athletes Incentive Scheme (Shakam) to the athletes who succeeded at the recently concluded SEA Games and Para Asean Games.
Najib also highlighted five main traits for an athlete to succeed at a bigger stage.
The five traits are good sporting technique, physical strength suitable for the particular sport, practice of good nutrition, good mental strength and medical advantages.
"If all of these elements can be moulded, then the athletes can achieve great things in the future," he said.
Najib also commended the 231 Under-21 athletes who competed in the 29th SEA Games last August.
He said that this is proof that Malaysia is able to produce good athletes to compete on a big stage.
"Athletes from this age group managed to win 112 golds for Malaysia.
"This means that we do have good quality young athletes who can be trained to achieve greatness on a bigger stage," he said.
Malaysia emerged as the overall champion at the 29th SEA Games with their best ever outing at the biennial event with 145 gold, 92 silver and 86 bronze medals.
Malaysia finished as first runner-up at the 9th Asean Para Games after securing 90 gold medals for a total final tally of 258 medals.
Meanwhile, the top Shakam recipients for SEA Games was aquatics which scooped RM427,750 for the Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia while RM700,500 was awarded to athletics.