Foul!

1. Sports is about giving your best. Only the best are rewarded and glorified. The rest are easily forgotten. 2. Criticism is part of sports. Criticism pushes athletes, coaches and stakeholders to produce better results, to put a good performance. 3. After all, those who would win accolades and the hearts of the people through such motivation is the athlete and those around him or her - and not the critics. 4. The Malaysian athletes contributed 145 gold medals at the 2017 SEA Games held in Kuala Lumpur, enabling the host nation to be crowned the overall champions. 5. But this fact was overshadowed by numerous unsavory episodes throughout the meet, as documented by the author on Aug 31, 2017 and the Bangkok Post , among others. 6. Some 18 months following the Games, the 2017 SEA Games Report finally surfaced. The report did not provide any analysis, data or insights but for some messages, a commentary by the Malaysian Organising Committee (MASOC), team list of the partici...

  Some 70 out of the close to 160 staff from the Malaysian Organising Committee (Masoc), the organiser of the KL 2017 SEA Games and Asean Para Games, have had their contracts cut short. The employees were handed their letters on Nov 30 and told to leave by Dec 31, 2017. For the record, the one month termination notice "by either party" is in line with Masoc's contract with their staff. The decision was made following a meeting between Masoc and the Youth and Sports Ministry recently. Some of them, with existing contracts that run between 15 months and two years, are wondering on what grounds were they being asked to leave early. They also wished they were given the heads up. "We are fully aware the one month's (termination) notice is clearly stated in our contracts. We are just wondering how was the list (of those asked to leave early) drawn out," said an insider who refused to be named. "We learnt some 70 staff are involved in this exercis...

When: Oct 14, 2017 Where: Nationwide. What's the plan? The Youth and Sports Ministry has several activities lined up. Two outstanding features of the celebration this year are: 1. All sporting venues and facilities owned by the ministry will be available on October 14, 2017 for FREE! - Hopefully venues belonging to the state government and state sports councils will also be made available to the masses on that day without any charges. Perhaps the private sector and gymnasium operators can jump on the bandwagon and market their services. 2. You will be sweating it out alongside our KL SEA Games medalists. - Efforts are being made to get our superheroes to return to their hometowns and join the locals for a fun day out. There will be several activities organised by other parties here and abroad. The list can be viewed here . So ditch your mobile phones and go sweat it out. Have real conversations, make new friends. The National Sports Day is just 15 days away...

As published in Malay Mail today HARESH SAYS By Haresh Deol RUNNING has been an integral part of mankind's activities for centuries. Men ran to hunt for food while an organised long distance race was first documented as early as 690BC in Egypt. King Taharka mooted and laid down the rules for soldiers to run a 100km race which started in the area between Sakkara Pyramid and Faiyum Oasis before ending at Hawara Pyramid in Faiyum. It was a race where even King Taharka participated, to show his keen interest in the event. Running was part of the ancient Olympics which started in 776BC and the marathon has been featured in every Olympic Games since the inaugural modern Olympics in 1896. Marathons, half-marathons and 10km runs have been enjoying a strong following in Malaysia in recent years, attracting thousands of local and foreign participants. Last season saw a running competition held nationwide practically every other weekend. From the look of things, t...