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14th August, 2007
KUALA LUMPUR: The Youth and Sports Ministry has set up a Paralympic Division at the National Sports Council (NSC) to draw up long-term programmes for national paralympic athletes up to 2012.
Its minister, Datuk Seri Azalina Othman Said said the division was set up in June to assist in the development of disabled athletes so that they would be on par with the elite athletes.
“The NSC will collaborate with the Malaysian Paralympic Council (MPC) in drawing up and implementing programmes for the paralympic athletes,” she told reporters after opening the Seminar on the Development of Paralympic Sports in Malaysia.
The two-day seminar at the Dewan Perdana, NSC beginning yesterday will discuss the direction of the development of the sport for disabled athletes to refute the negative perception of certain groups on the capability of these special athletes.
Azalina said so far there were 2,000 paralympic athletes who were active in the country and she hoped that special development programmes which had been drawn up for them would churn out more paralympic athletes who had the potentials to emerge as world champions in future.
On the Paralympic Games in Beijing next year, Azalina said Malaysia was confident that the national athletes were capable of bringing back the country’s first gold medal.
Malaysia’s best achievement in the Paralympic Games was in Barcelona, Spain in 1992 when the athletes won one silver in powerlifting and two bronze medals in powerlifting and athletics.
Malaysia participated in the Paralympic Games from 1988 in Seoul, South Korea.
Meanwhile, the Director of the NSC Paralympic Division, Mohd Safrushahor Yusoff when met by Bernama said the training programmes for the elite paralympic athletes were being carried out periodically at the NSC with more emphasis on preparations for the Asean Para Games in Bangkok from Jan 17 to 27 next year.
“For the Beijing Paralympic Games next year, we already have eight athletes who are eligible to compete in the Games. They too come to the NSC for training,” he said.
Out of the eight athletes eligible for the Beijing Paralympics, three are for athletics, powerlifting (2), swimming (1), table-tennis (1) and shooting (1).
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