KUALA LUMPUR: National para shuttler Cheah Liek Hou admits that he owes much of his 2024 Paris Paralympic golden success to the full support given by the National Sports Council (NSC) and the National Sports Institute (NSI).
He said the two institutions fulfilled all the requests of the para-athletes as they got to use the futsal court facilities at the NSC in Bukit Jalil for a month and a half before flying off to Paris.
“While there, I was able to focus on my training and even stayed temporarily at Casa 2 in the NSC. If there were any issues, I would head straight for physiotherapy (at the NSI) for rehabilitation and that certainly helped with my preparation,” he said.
Liek Hou, who bagged the SU5 (physical impairment) gold medal, hopes that the ‘cold war’ between the NSI and the Paralympic Council of Malaysia (PCM), following the national para contingent’s failure to meet the four-gold target, would not go on to ensure all the programmes drawn up could run smoothly.
“We don’t want to create so many issues... we, as athletes, only want to focus on achievements and targets.
“If we can produce positive results, why not retain the existing programme or sit together to discuss a much better programme,” he said.
Earlier, PCM president Datuk Seri Megat D Shahriman Zaharudin had accused the NSC of meddling in the management of the national contingent at the Paris Paralympics, which he believed contributed to their failure to meet the four-gold target.
He alleged that this resulted in the PCM officials being unable to carry out their duties, which then led to the Malaysian contingent’s failure.
Meanwhile, Liek Hou expects the NSC to secure the services of head coach Nova Armada for the long term following his success in winning his second gold medal at the Paralympics.
However, he said he would leave it to the national governing body to decide whether or not to extend Nova’s contract until the Aichi-Nagoya 2026 Asian Para Games in Japan.
“It’s not easy to defend the gold medal at the age of 36... so, there is a difference in terms of training. If it hadn’t been for the quality of training with Nova, I feel that I would not have been able to defend the gold medal,” he said.
