KUALA LUMPUR: The Le Tour de Langkawi (LTdL) 2022, scheduled for June 11-18, has been postponed to Oct 11-18 due to a clash of dates with other cycling championships.
Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Faizal Azumu said this was because many championships are held in June, which is summertime in Europe.
He also confirmed that the routes announced in March would be retained, adding that the cyclists are set to go all out in search of Union Cycliste Internationale (UCI) ranking points.
“The UCI has agreed for the hosting of the LTdL in October as the last race of the season. As such, surely all eyes will be on the LTdL and Malaysia will be the focus of cycling fans worldwide.
“We have also discussed with the private organiser (Human Voyage Sdn Bhd) in detail regarding the hosting of the championship, so there is no problem postponing it to October,” he said when met by reporters after the Youth and Sports Ministry Aidilfitri celebration at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil here today.
Prime Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob was the guest of honour at the event, which was also attended by national athletes, sports leaders and former athletes.
The LTdL was supposed to be held from March 3-10 but had to be postponed to June by Human Voyage due to the sudden hike in Covid-19 cases of the Omicron variant early this year, quarantine regulations as well as the need to restructure the marketing and commercialisation strategies.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Faizal is confident Malaysia will be able to host the 34th edition of the SEA Games in 2027 as it has sufficient facilities after successfully hosting the biennial Games in 2017 and the Commonwealth Games in 1998.
“I am proud because usually, it takes 20 years of rotation before one can get to host the Games, but we have been offered to host the Games after 10 years. The ASEAN countries are impressed and confident of the capabilities of Malaysians to host the SEA Games,” he said, adding that other details like the budget would be discussed later.
Asked about the request by Taekwondo Malaysia (TM) for the martial arts sports to be included again as a core sport, he said he would discuss the matter with the National Sports Council (NSC) soon.
Previously, TM president Azizul Annuar Adenan had asked that taekwondo be re-listed as a core sport after the excellent performances of the national exponents in returning home with a silver and two bronzes in the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championships in South Korea as well as with one gold, one silver and three bronzes from the recently-concluded Hanoi SEA Games in Vietnam. - Bernama
