MALAYSIA: MARTIAL ARTS/Year In Review: It was a mediocre year by any standard

S.Selvam
Dec 27

IF results of the Philippines Sea Games are a benchmark, then, 2005 will go down as a mediocre year for martial arts in the country.

With some 80 gold medals at stake for the five martial art sports - judo, karate-do, silat, taekwondo and wushu - the national contingent returned with just nine gold medals, and many silvers and bronzes.

Biased judging may be the convenient excuse for the poor haul, but I believe this excuse will also be given when Thailand hosts the Games in 2007.

For that is the nature of the sport - subjective. In fact, that is what makes the sport, to some extent, appealing to its practitioners as well.

In the Philippines, karate emerged as the biggest contributors with four gold medals, while silat and taekwondo returned with three and two gold medals, respectively. In fact, these three sports actually met their respective targets.

While wushu atoned for its "Manila nightmare" by bagging four gold medals in the last week's World Championships, judo's poor run in the Sea Games needs to be looked into seriously.

Granted that the sport does not enjoy the massive support and status that taekwondo and karate enjoy, but the last time judo won a Sea Games gold medal was in 1981, and surely 24 years is enough time to arrest whatever decline the sport had suffered.

Then there is taekwondo, an Olympic sport. Unfortunately, this is one Olympic sport that will soon find itself losing its popularity and support if it continues on in its present path.

In fact, one can write a book on taekwondo's problems and on the antics of its officials.

Last year's Sportswoman of the Year and Olympian Elaine Teo bungled so badly in Manila that, and if it wasn't for the heroics of little known Rusfredy Tokan Petrus, taekwondo would not have met its two-gold medal target.

Elaine bungled because it was based on her request that the national coaches, the National Sports Council and the Olympic Council of Malaysia endorsed the decision to put her in a heavier category simply because she was confident of winning the gold medal in that category.

Furthermore, with a Thai Olympic bronze medallist in her original category, Elaine felt she did not have a chance to win.

This coming from an athlete who has been identified as medallist in the Commonwealth Games and Asian Games next year!

Having said that, taekwondo is also one sport where Southeast Asians, judging by the number of quality opponents and Olympic and World medallists, are world class.

The exponents from Thailand, Vietnam, Philippines and Indonesia have produced medallists at the World and Olympic stage, and as such, no matter how much running Malaysian exponents do, they are bound to meet a world class opponent at the Sea Games level.

On the administration front, the de-registration of the Malaysian Taekwondo Asociation (MTA) saw law suits and police reports being lodged at a furious pace.

And while certain parties seem to emphasise that the young exponents and the sport are the ones suffering, they (warring parties) are the ones actually doing all the damage.

As for karate, national coach P. Arivalagan should be given some credit for his boldness in stating that the team was good for seven gold medals in Manila.

Although only four was the final tally, won, Arivalagan's stand is refreshing given Malaysian sport officials' nature of being too conservative with their medal predictions for fear of not meeting the target.

And come 2006, with the Asian Games coming up in December, you can bet that biased judging will rear its head again and officials will be singing the same old tune.

Source from http://www.nst.com.my