Happy New Year 2015

Star Online : Decline in sports performances worrying: Khairy

BY AFTAR SINGH

PUTRAJAYA: Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin is not a happy man.

The Malaysian contingent surpassed their 40-gold target at the Myanmar SEA Games in December, but there is no denying the decline in the standard of various sports.

“Although we surpassed the 40-gold medal target (by winning 43 golds), we finished fifth overall among 11 countries,” said Khairy after a post-mortem meeting attended by the National Sports Council (NSC) and Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) on Thursday.

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin at the press conference after chairing the SEA Games post-mortem meeting. With him are Olympic Council of Malaysia president Tunku Tan Sri Imran Tuanku Ja’afar (left) and NSC director-general Datuk Seri Zolkples Embong (right).

“I am greatly concerned about the decline in sports that we used to dominate in the SEA Games.

“We used to win golds in athletics, swimming, badminton and sepaktakraw. But today, we are struggling to win medals in these sports.

“We need strategic intervention to help improve the standard of these sports for the 2017 SEA Games, which we will be hosting.”

He pointed out that even Vietnam did better than Malaysia in swimming, which had 32 gold medals up for grabs. Vietnam bagged five golds while Malaysia only managed to win four.

“ASUM (Amateur Swimming Association of Malaysia) are banking on the same old swimmers like Daniel Bego, Khoo Cai Lin and Christina Loh to win the medals,” said Khairy.

“We need to look for a calibre foreign coach to help improve the standard of the swimmers.”

He also took athletics to task, saying that although the back-up athletes did well to improve their personal best to win medals, they are still lagging behind neighbours Thailand.

“MAF (Malaysian Athletic Federation) need to hire a good technical director who can help local coaches produce better athletes,” he said.

“I’m also worried about the standard of badminton as the shuttlers struggled to do well at the SEA Games.”

As for sepaktakraw, Khairy believes that it needs a total revamp and that the association should work closely with the NSC to improve their fortunes.

He also questioned fringe sports that have not been delivering medals for many years.

“There are some sports like volleyball, table tennis, waterpolo and women’s football that have not done well for the last 15 years. The time has come for them to start cracking and find ways to improve their standard,” he said.

2015 PRAKL Age Group Swimming Championship

Dear All,

The Invite for 2015 PRAKL Age Group Swimming Championship is out today. Please note the meet info below :


Date                                :    31st  January – 2nd February, 2015 (Sat - Mon)
Venue                           :    Kuala Lumpur Swimming Complex,
                                             Jalan Yaacob Latif, Bandar Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur
Organizer                        :    Kuala Lumpur Amateur Swimming Association  (KLASA)
Rules                               :    FINA Rules applies
Date of Age Reckoning  :   1st January, 2015
Entry Closing Date         :   8th January, 2015
Team Manager Meeting :   31st January, 2015 at 8.00 a.m.
Entries                             :    No limit to the number of swimmers or events


Please download invite and documents here.

Entry form for IBSC swimmers is due 1 Jan 2015. Please download IBSC Entry Form.

Regards,
IBSC Swim Committee

IBSC Conquered the Pool to Emerge Champs Again!

This year's President Cup 2014 held for the 33rd time saw the highest turnout for IBSC swimmers as we registered 131 swimmers in the annual national inter-club swimming championship, making us the club with the top participants. There were a total of 1,036 registered swimmers from 42 clubs all over Malaysia.

What's encouraging for IBSC was the increased participation of Group IV swimmers who were all excited and eager to take on the challenging swim even though there were qualifying times imposed. To some it was their first experience in President Cup.

Team IBSC 

In the meet, Team IBSC led with massive margin topping with 1219.5 points, followed by PADE Supersharkz in second place with 663 points and the third place was grabbed by Kelab Renang MSSC with 408.5 points. IBSC easily retained the President Cup trophy again!

If not for the fantastic achievements of the following swimmers, IBSC wouldn't have accumulated so much points. Every swimmer tried their very best to gain points for the club. Congrats to all for their splendid performances and improved PBs.

IBSC's top points scorer was Yeong Zhen Yi (Group IV Girls), who has collected 72 points in total with 2 gold, 2 silver and 1 bronze as she's met with some tight finishes in some races.

Erika Kong returned to swim for IBSC in the Women Open and she broke the meet record in 100m breast with new time of 1:13.36, previously held by compatriot Christina Loh (2011, 1:13.43). In the 50m breast, she again repeated the record breaking by erasing Christina's time (2010, 33.99) with a better time of 33.85.

Erika, finishing her breaststroke in new meet record times.

Tern Jian Han also did the same ritual as Erika by breaking 2 backstoke records belonging to Ian James Barr and refreshing the 50m back time to 26.74 (2010, 27.72) and 200m back of 57.61 (2010, 1:01.86).

Jian Han, backstroke specialist

The other meet record was smashed by Adam Afif, the breaststoke sprinter in his 50m breast when he swam 31.08 to shatter the long-standing 7 year record belonging to Lau Zhen Yong of ISC (2007, 31.51).

Adam Afif

The meet record breakers were :

E109 Men 18-30 50 Fly Open, 25.48  CHAN JIE – KSAS
E120 Women 18-30 100 Breast Open, 1:13.36  ERIKA KONG – IBSC
E125 Boys 13-14 50 Back Group 2, 28.70  JORDAN YIP – SST
E129 Men 18-30 50 Back Open, 26.74  JIAN HAN TERN - IBSC
E209 Men 18-30 100 Fly Open, 56.63  CHAN JIE – KSAS
E215 Boys 13-14 50 Breast Group 2, 31.08 ADAM AFIF BIN FAIZAL – IBSC
E216 Girls 13-14 50 Breast Group 2, 34.35  YAN YING LAI – KPN
E217 Boys 15-17 50 Breast Group 1, 30.53  WEI TZE FOONG – MSSC
E219 Men 18-30 50 Breast Open, 29.39  SHAUN YAP – PADE
E220 Women 18-30 50 Breast Open, 33.85  ERIKA KONG – IBSC
E309 Men 18-30 100 Back Open, 57.61 JIAN HAN TERN – IBSC
E316 Girls 13-14 50 Free Group 2, 26.97  YILIN ELYNN TAN – PSC
E317 Boys 15-17 50 Free Group 1, 23.94  TSIU KHOON LIM – PADE
E319 Men 18-30 50 Free Open, 23.76  CHAN YANG – KSAS

The 3-day meet was rather exhausting in a way as some have to wait long for their swim events. The boredom on day 1, Friday, was soon broken on Saturday morning, as ARENA has an Elite Team autograph signing sessions involving some national athletes for their swim fans. Some representing the Elite Team and swimming under IBSC were Ian James Barr, Vernon Lee and Erika Kong.

Team Manager, Ken, was totally committed in his duties, ensuring the juniors turn up for marshaling and the chaperons were also hard at work managing and distributing meals to the swimmers. Great job to the working committee.

Team Manager, Ken Liew, checking the event for Zhen Yi.

It was also the first time IBSC's committee took the opportunity to raise some funds during a meet by selling the AquaSwim hair products and helping the meet organiser with the redemption of free shampoo. The redemption has attracted a long queue first thing in the morning on day 1, and the free samples were snapped up within an hour.

We couldn't thank the coaches enough for guiding the swimmers in the competition. The support of the parents were humongous and the unity of the team work amongst all of us was top-notched.

Thanks to all coaches, swimmers, parents and volunteers for yet another successful swim meet. Also our appreciation goes to our partner for President Cup, Trend Master Sdn Bhd for partnering us in providing the competition kit to our swimmers.

See more photos at IBSC Gallery.

Sarvesh Pillai ceased the opportunity to take a snapshot with the Arena Elite Team

Azquiya taking a photo with Erika Kong, Vernon Lee and Ian James Barr

Ian James Barr happy to sign off his names anywhere

Azquiya and parents who flew in from Sri Lanka to join IBSC for the swim, sharing the celebration

Kids enjoying themselves at the end of the competition

The Champion Team for President Cup 2014