OCM Weekly Highlights - 9th August 2009

OCM Weekly Highlights 

9th August 2009

OCM Official Website: www.olympic.org.my

Coming Events

1st Mini Olympics Malaysia 2009 – 29th July to 9th August 2009. 

1st Asian Martial Arts Games 2009 – 1st to 9th August 2009, Bangkok, Thailand. 

BWF World Championships-09 – 10th to 16th August 2009 at Hyderabad, India.

3rd OCM Executive Board Meeting – 11th August 2009 at 4.30 p.m. at OCM Board Room, 1st Floor, Wisma OCM Kuala Lumpur.

2009 UCI Juniors World Track Cycling Championship in Moscow – 7th to 15th August 2009 in Moscow, Russia.

5th ASEAN Para Games Kuala Lumpur 2009 (KL’09) – 15th to 17th August 2009 in Kuala Lumpur. 

Da Ma Cai National Wushu Championships 2009 – 22nd to 24th August 2009, at Stadium Badminton Kuala Lumpur, Cheras. 

23rd FIBA Asia Championship for Women - Twelve teams divided into two Levels will battle it out in the Championship which will be played from Sept 17-24, 2009 in the southern Indian coastal town of Chennai. Malaysia is in Level II with teams from Kazakhstan, Lebanon, Philippines, Sri Lanka and Uzbekistan.

News Items

26th Malaysian Ladies Amateur Open 2009 

The 26th Malaysian Ladies Amateur Open was held from 4th to 6th August 2009 at the Mines Resort & Golf Club, Kuala Lumpur. Congratulations to Ms. Michelle Koh for winning the DYMM Tuanku Ampuan Negeri Sembilan Trophy with a three day total of 207 (6 under par) to finish 7 strokes ahead of fellow Malaysia Ms. Chua Tze Jean (214). Ms. Ginger Mak of Hong Kong was in third position, with a score of 219. Ms. Michelle Koh is only the third Malaysian to have won the Trophy, and her victory came after nine years since the last occasion a Malaysia won the Trophy was in 2000. Team Malaysia comprising Ms. Michelle Koh, Ms. Chua Tze Jean and Ms. Michelle Low won the Mrs. May Williams Trophy. 

Hulu Langat Netball Association Annual Open Invitation Netball Championship 2009

The Hulu Langat Netball Association organized their Annual Open Invitation Netball Championship 2009 for the Cik Hajah Norminshah Challenge Trophy on Sunday, 9th August 2009 at the OCM Indoor Sports Arena, 3rd Floor, Wisma OCM Phase II, Kuala Lumpur. The competition was held from 9.00 a.m. to 4.30 p.m.

A total of 16 teams entered, but 3 teams pulled out due to lack of players. Team ‘One Two Win’ won the Cik Hajah Norminshah Challenge Trophy, a Milo Hamper and cash prize of RM1,000/=. Team “ Majlis Perbandaran Ampang Jaya’ was runner up and won a Milo Hamper, and RM750/= cash prize. Team ‘Sweet Girls’ finished third and won a Milo Hamper and cash prize of RM500/=. Team ‘One World’ was fourth and won a Milo Hamper and RM250/= cash prize. 

1st Mini Olympics Malaysia 2009 

The 1st Mini Olympic Malaysia ended slightly after noon on 9th August 2009, with the completion of the Men’s and Women’s Artistic Gymnastics competitions. Overall the 1st Mini Olympics was a success for the following reasons:-

• The 8 sports in the programme of the Mini Olympics Malaysia were provided funds by the National Sports Council Malaysia to organise high level competitions of their sports. 

• The fully funded Mini Olympics Malaysia is an additional high level competitions to the elite athletes of the 8 sports, which otherwise would not have been available.

• The Mini Olympics Malaysia did not replace the National Championships of the 8 sports in the programme.

• The elite athletes did not represent their states associations but were representing their sports and their national sports associations.

• The national sports associations of the 8 sports could utilize the Mini Olympics Malaysia to provide experience for their technical officials, such as judges, referees, etc. and also improving their expertise and skills in organizing the competitions of their sports. 

• While the Mini Olympics Malaysia is not a development programme of the 8 sports, nevertheless it could provide statistics and results on the present standards of the 8 sports and also identify the weak events and weak states that have very few or no athletes who could qualify for the Mini Olympics.

An in dept and detailed study and evaluation of the results of the 1st Mini Olympics Malaysia should be carried out by the 8 NSAs, MSN and OCM, to come out with recommendations for the improvements of the 2nd Mini Olympics Malaysia.

Malaysian Sports Industry Convention (KISMAS) 2009

The Malaysian Sports Industry Convention (KISMAS) 2009 was held on 7th and 8th August 2009 at the Berjaya Times Square Convention Centre. Around 500 participants from government and non government sports organizations, sports business representatives, media, etc. KISMAS was declared opened by the Right Honourable Prime Minister of Malaysia, YAB Dato’ Seri Najib Tun Abdul Razak. 

In his Key-Note address, the Prime Minster said that Malaysia needs to produce Champions at World and International levels, as success of Malaysian athletes at international competitions will promote the sports industry and attract private sector support for sports development. He stress the importance of sports for Malaysia and identified the following 6 areas where sports play important roles, the development of high performance athletes, national unity, nation building, healthy life style, sports tourism and sports industry. The Prime Minister also declared 2011 as the Sports Industry Year.

YAM Tunku Tan Sri Imran ibni Almarhum Tuanku Ja’afar, President of the Olympic Council of Malaysia, presented a paper on the subject “Optimising Private Enterprise in Sports Development”. In his paper, YAM Tunku highlighted the following four points and then presented some examples of private enterprises initiatives in sport in Malaysia. 

The first point he made was that the majority of people involved in sport, not only in Malaysia but also worldwide, are volunteers. Unfortunately, in Malaysia volunteers in sport are rare because sport is not yet part of Malaysia’s psyche or culture. 

The second point was that Malaysia has to build up interest in sport in order to get even close to what is happening in USA, Australia and other great sporting nations. Only through concerted effort from Government and private sector can this happen.

The third point was that in Malaysia, private sector has not really involved itself in sport top the extent it has in other countries. Sponsorship is not easy to find in Malaysia and even if there is sponsorship, it is often not adequate.

The fourth and last was that unless sport engage and involve private enterprise, Malaysia will never achieve the goal of being a sporting nation. The trend of sport being more and more dependent on Government has to be reversed.

YAM Tunku then presented four examples of his own experience of how private enterprise had involved in the achievements and successes of SportExcel (Foundation for Malaysian Sporting Excellence), Squash, Cricket and Astro Arena. 

Overall the KISMAS was a success, although what were said had been said before many times. Unfortunately, based on past records, the implementation of what were recommended seemed to be difficult. As an example, a simple but critical success factor mentioned by Mr. Martin Toomey General Manager, High Performance, Sport & Recreation New Zealand, of placing ‘Quality people in influential roles’ could be difficult to implement.