BIRMINGHAM: The national weightlifting squad deserve praise after ending their campaign in the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games here with two golds and a silver.
Their superb success saw them improve on their achievement at the 2018 edition in Gold Coast, Australia when they returned home with two golds and a bronze.
The national squad, under coach Yon Haryono, bagged the two golds at the National Exhibition Centre here through Mohamad Aniq Kasdan(pix) in the 55-kilogramme (kg) category and Muhamad Aznil Bidin (61kg), while Muhammad Erry Hidayat (73kg) contributed the sole silver.
In Gold Coast four years ago, the national lifters raked in two golds through Muhamad Aznil and Azroy Hazal Wafie Izhar Ahmad (56kg) while Muhamad Fazrul Azrie Mohdad (85kg) chipped in with a bronze.
However, national team manager Amirul Hamizan Ibrahim feels that a lot more still needs to be done if they are to deliver more medals for Malaysia in upcoming tournaments or championships.
“Of course, we are satisfied as we exceeded the target... before coming here, our target was one gold, one silver and one bronze. But (here), there were some pleasing achievements and some disappointments. Not 100 per cent satisfied,” he said when commenting on the weightlifting team’s achievements at the quadrennial Games here.
As such, he hoped that the National Sports Council (NSC) will consider the appeal by the Malaysian Weightlifting Federation (MWF) to have the sport reinstated into the core sports or high-performance training programme.
He said this approach was to help unearth and groom new talent to become back-ups for the existing squad through overseas competitions and training stints
“Yes, we did go for many overseas competitions and training stints. But if weightlifting is under the core sports programme, then the national lifters will enjoy more exposure, especially overseas, as part of their preparations for upcoming competitions.
“If we want more medals (from weightlifting) in the Commonwealth Games in the future, we must start now,” said the former national lifter.
For the record, weightlifting was among three sports dropped from the country’s core sports list apart from sepak takraw and taekwondo in 2017 following deteriorating performances as well as disciplinary problems, such as the failure of several lifters in dope tests.
Elaborating, Amirul Hamizan said that after Birmingham, some of the lifters would compete in the Kuala Lumpur Malaysia Games (Sukma) in September as well as the World Championships in Colombia in December.
The national weightlifters will return home from Birmingham tomorrow (Aug 5).
Malaysia sent seven weightlifters, including two women, to compete in Birmingham 2022.
Besides Muhamad Aznil, Mohamad Aniq and Muhammad Erry, the others were Mohamad Nasir Roslan (81kg), Muhammad Hafiz Shamsuddin (109kg), Elly Cascandra Engelbert (55kg) and Marceeta Marylyne Marcus (59kg).-Bernama
