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Saturday, November 26, 2011

Malaysia Men 4x400m Gold

Yes, i am still sadden by the fact that the quartet was not given the chance to stay ONE MORE NIGHT to collect their Gold medal while the National Anthem is played in Palembang, Indonesia. This Gold was hard fought for, what more they are banded as Category B by the Malaysia Amateur Athletic Union (MAAU) and they are not "medal hopeful".
Our sports are really messed up. Politics doesn't help with the advancement of the sports if it is all about "who get to go for free trips". Countries such as China and even (the former) Russia, takes pride with their citizen's athletic prowess and constantly produces new talent to conquer the sporting scene.
We in Malaysia over-relies on old dogs. And once the old dogs can't do the sports anymore, the blame game begins.
If you think the 4x400m men had it easy - they were without their sole inspirator in Palembang, their coach. Ironically, it was their coach that has fought until the 11th hour to get them on to the plane - short of paying for their own ticket to be at the game.
Here, watch how they won the race in style. They ran like men possessed.
Taken by a Singaporean Official (from YouTube)
The celebration at the end shows just how proud they were. The pain and the glory is all theirs.
1 Malaysia 03:10.49 Gold 
2 Philippines 03:11.16 Silver 
3 Thailand 03:14.90 Bronze 
4 Singapore 03:18.50
5 Indonesia 03:20.18
Myanmar DQ
By the way, if you ever wondered, yes, some of our athletes PAID for their own trip despite proudly wearing the National Color.
Sad ain't it? It is like asking our Soldiers to go to war - but go get your own tickets there.

2 comments:

  1. Our athletes have loads of potential but unfortunately our officials are a bunch of self serving pigs!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nick Arthur - you are damn freaking right Sir!

    ReplyDelete