THE newly appointed president of Malaysia Athletics (MA), Datuk Karim Ibrahim, has pledged to end the country’s almost 50-year drought for a field and track athlete to reach the Olympic semi-finals.
Karim said that several initiatives are already in the pipeline, with a focus on strengthening grassroots development and reviving the national talent identification programme that had previously shown promise.
“It has been nearly 50 years since any of our athletes have made it to the semi-finals of the Olympic Games. We have to break this barrier.
“I remain optimistic, but this cannot be achieved without strong backing from the government, state associations, and all relevant stakeholders,” he said when met on Sunday.
Malaysia last reached the semi-finals in athletics at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, when the late Ishtiaq Mubarak qualified for the 110m hurdles. He was the second Malaysian to do so, after Tan Sri Dr. M. Jegathesan in the 200m sprint at the 1964 Tokyo Olympics.
As part of his bold vision, Karim said MA would also launch a new sprint-focused initiative called ‘B-10’ aimed at developing sprinters capable of breaking the 10-second barrier in the 100 metres.
Currently, only one Malaysian athlete, the national record holder Muhammad Azeem Mohd Fahmi, has shown potential to achieve this feat.
“If we can produce two sub-10-second sprinters, I believe we’ll have a real shot in the relay events — and possibly make the Olympic semi-finals,” Karim said.
In addition to sprinting, MA will also focus on jump events, an area Karim believes holds untapped potential given Malaysia’s available facilities and technical expertise.
