Foul!

News website  Twentytwo13.my had yesterday  tweeted  t he Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia's (ASUM) statement, confirming the involvement of three senior and four junior national divers of a "disciplinary issue" during their training in Guangzhou, China. This comes following a video that made its rounds showing several divers allegedly " partying and drinking alcohol", as widely reported.    The reports also named the divers  involved - Pandelela Rinong, Nur Dhabitah Sabri, Chew Yiwei, Hanis Nazirul Jaya Surya, Jellson Jabillin, Gabriel Gilbert Daim and Kimberly Bong.  Smoking severely impairs a person's stamina - even more so for an athlete. Yet, it is obvious some of our athletes continue to smoke. I'm sure the  experts (and test results) from the National Sports Institute know so (and will reveal so).  Alcohol  when consumed excessively is bad for health too. But athletes of the yesteryear wil...

National diving coach Huang Qiang was acquitted and discharged by a court yesterday on a charge of raping a diver without calling for his defence. Read the full report here . For the record, national diving coach Huang Qiang, a Malaysian citizen originally from China, was charged with raping a national diver at the National Aquatic Centre in Bukit Jalil September last year.  The incident led to head diving coach Yang Zhuliang's contact not being extended. Yang had trained divers Pandelela Rinong and Cheong Jun Hoong, both of whom were medal winners in the 2012 and 2016 Olympics. On Dec 22, 2017, this article quoted the Youth and Sports Minister as saying: “The main reason why Zhuliang’s contract as national diving head coach was not renewed was because of a culture and environment of fear among some of our diving athletes. This culture and environment had caused cases of rape, sexual harassment, violence, beatings, bullying and threats." As such: 1. Will Yan...

UPDATE 9.06am :Paralympic athlete Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli won the gold medal in the men's shot put (F20) final of the IPC World Athletics Championships. ----   National divers Pandelela Rinong and Leong Mun Yee ensured a podium finish in the women's 10m platfom synchronised at the World Aquatics Championship in Barcelona early this morning. Pandelela and Mun Yee bagged the bronze medal in the Spanish city known for its football team while the famous La Sagrada Família serves as the backdrop for the world competition. China pair Chen Ruolin-Liu Hui Xia won the gold medal while Canadians Meaghan Benfeito-Roseline Filion were placed second. The Malaysian duo repeated their efforts in 2009 when they also won the bronze medal in the same event then. The other two Asian teams who made it to the finals are the divers from North Korea (placed 9th overall) and neighbours South Korea (11th). On Monday, the national archers came in second after losing 209-203 to Mexico in t...

A picture of our national divers sleeping on the floor at the New York airport was uploaded by London Olympic bronze medalist Pandelela Rinong. Would you ever see a picture of an official sleeping on the floor? As SS Dhaliwal wrote, I s this how we treat our athletes? HD says: Sigh!

Kegagalan. That was the word used by former Mailsport journo Rizal Hashim during a phoner with Sukan Awani Ekstra on Astro Awani (ch 501) yesterday. I was a guest on the said show as we discussed about Malaysia's performance at the 2012 Summer Games. Rizal had plenty to say about the powers-that-be, mainly the Sports Ministry and the National Sports Council to which I refrained from commenting and to only react by saying; "Ouch". The Road to London 2012 programme - initiated by former Sports Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob - had the 'objective' of ending the gold medal drought. It was not meant to be but some insist the RM20 million programme has "reaped its benefits" as reported here . Some may say Azizulhasni Awang failed to rise to the occasion but I know national cycling coach John Beasley would be happy with Azizulhasni's performance, given the fact that Azizulhasni bounced back from several setbacks prior the Olympics. Also, the succes...

It got many excited as London Olympic bronze medalist Pandelela Rinong is 'finally' on twitter. With a picture of her and her favourite nickname as her handle ( @LuluGDolphine ), one would have expected the Sarawakian lass to have stepped into the world of Twitter. However, a quick check by the author proved otherwise as evident in the exchange of SMS-es ( pic ). Harimau Muda A coach Ong Kim Swee has several 'pages' on Facebook and Twitter. He has denied having set up accounts on any social platforms. Parody accounts are common as even former Works minister and MIC president Samy Vellu is also seen on Twitter. So the next time you follow, like or request to add someone from such social networks, do some homework before blindly acknowledging. Otherwise, there could be a serious form of misrepresentation that could offend many in return. HD says: The price of being famous I guess.

National diver Pandelela Rinong made a splash at the London Olympics after bagging the bronze medal in the women's 10m platform final. China's Chen Roulin won the gold medal with a total of 422.30 points while Australian Brittnay Broben surprised many by playing bridesmaid after collecting 366.50 points. Pandelela, meanwhile, obtained 359.20 points to clinch the bronze. This is the nation's second medal at the Summer Games after national shuttler Lee Chong Wei netted the silver medal in the men's singles final. Congratulations to Pandelela and the coaches.