KUALA LUMPUR: One of the first legacy initiatives undertaken by Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria following his election as Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) vice-president for Southeast Asia was the establishment of an Asian High Performance Badminton Centre in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) in a statement said Mohamad Norza who is also OCM president has initialy proposed the idea to the Director General of OCA, Captain Husain Al-Musallam during his working visit to Kuala Lumpur on May 1, last year.
The statement emphasized that Husain Al-Musallam was highly impressed with the state-of-the-art facilities within the Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM) during the visit, that not only houses the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) but also serves as the primary training hub for the National Badminton Team of Malaysia.
“As the former President of BAM and Honorary President of Badminton Asia, I am honoured to serve as OCA Vice President for Southeast Asia and contribute to the development of badminton in this new capacity.
“I would like to express my deepest gratitude to the newly elected OCA President, Raja Randhir Singh for his visionary leadership. His dedication to the Olympic Movement and his commitment to fostering sports development across Asia have been a true source of inspiration.
“With his guidance, we are confident that the Asian High Performance Badminton Centre will play a pivotal role in the success of the OCA Development Program,“ Mohamad Norza said.
This initiative represents a collaboration between the OCA, the NOC (National Olympic Committee) Malaysia and BAM, and these partnership was solidified with the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding during the 44th OCA General Assembly at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi, India, yesterday.
The Memorandum of Understanding was signed by Raja Randhir Singh, Mohamad Norza and acting president of BAM, Datuk V. Subramaniam which marks a significant milestone for the future of Badminton in Asia and reflects the commitment of all parties involved to advance the sport at both regional and global levels.
The main objective of establishing this centre is to contribute to the development of badminton across Asia by providing world-class training facilities in Malaysia, particularly for developing NOCs in the region.
The centre aims to nurture talent by offering high performance training to players, as well as development opportunities for coaches and umpires, through structured OCA Development Programs.
