Sports ministry calls on states to invest in identifying new aquatics stars

SUNGAI PETANI (June 15): The Youth and Sports Ministry (KBS) has urged all state governments to invest in the development of new talents in producing a pool of star athletes in swimming and diving in the near future.

Minister Hannah Yeoh says so far only two states, Sabah and Sarawak, have been investing heavily in the development of the two sports.

“We have seen that diving is a sport that brings many medals for Malaysia.

“Now two states, namely Sabah and Sarawak, spend a lot of money on coaches to produce new talents – Sarawak has up to six coaches, (in contrast) some states have no coaches.

“I have visited Perlis and Kedah, and there are many young children who are interested in swimming and diving. But what we need is continuity in cooperation between the National Sports Council (NSC) and the states.

“Every state needs to invest money for coaches and other facilities,” she said after attending the 2024 Swimming and Water Safety Accreditation Programme at the Sungai Petani Club here today.

Yeoh said several states had no programmes for the two sports, which had become a problem whenever they wanted to compete at the Malaysia Games (Sukma) level.

“When there is no coach, it means there is no investment to produce athletes representing the state. When there are not enough athletes representing states, for example in Sukma women’s diving events where at least six states are needed, that category would be dropped from the Games.

“When the event is scrapped, it means that there are no winners at the national level and subsequently, no athletes representing this sport at the international level,” she said.

Yeoh expressed hope that more members of Parliament would use their allocations to increase the number of sports programmes in their respective areas.

“The Kota Melaka parliamentary constituency in Melaka, for example, uses its own allocation to hold additional swimming programmes.

“Malaysia used to bring back a lot of medals (in swimming and diving).

“Now, we want to revive the golden age of these sports,” said Hannah, in expressing hope that in the next five to 10 years, more backup swimmers and divers at national and state levels could be unearthed.

Nevertheless, Yeoh was happy with the ecosystem for swimming in Kedah, describing it as ‘very promising’ because there were 13 swimming clubs actively helping to conduct talent development programmes in the state. – Bernama