Malaysian Olympic and Paralympic athletes receive COVID-19 vaccine

Ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games and Paralympic Games taking place in Tokyo, Japan, later this year, Malaysian athletes and officials involved began to take their vaccination on Tuesday as part the Youth and Sports Ministry's national COVID-19 immunisation programme.

The vaccination drive kicked off at the Desa Tasik Sports Complex in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, with track cyclist Fadhil Zonis having the honour of being the first Malaysian athlete to be vaccinated as he received his first dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

Program pemberian vaksin #COVID19 kepada atlet dan pegawai bagi Kontinjen Sukan Olimpik dan Paralimpik #Tokyo2020 bertempat di Pusat Pemberian Vaksin (PPV) Dewan Kompleks Sukan Desa Tasik, Cheras.#TeamISN #KitaJagaSukanKita #LindungDiriLindungSemua pic.twitter.com/9LqJzGBnRw
— Institut Sukan Negara ?? (@isnmalaysia) April 13, 2021

Malaysian Minister of Youth and Sports Reezal Merican Naina Merican also joined the athletes and officials to get vaccinated on the first day.

To date, 12 Malaysian athletes across five sports already booked their tickets to the Tokyo Olympics, namely Azizulhasni Awang (cycling), Shah Firdaus Sahrom (cycling), Pandelela Rinong (diving), Leong Mun Yee (diving), Ng Yan Yee (diving), Nur Dhabitah Sabri (diving), Farah Ann Abdul Hadi (gymnastics), Khairul Anuar Mohamad (archery), Khairulnizam Afendy (sailing), Nur Shazrin Latif (sailing), Nuraisyah Jamil (sailing) and Juni Noor Jamali (sailing).

As for the Tokyo Paralympics, 10 athletes were confirmed to be representing Malaysia: Ridzuan Puzi (athletics), Wong Kar Gee (athletics), Abdul Latif Romly (athletics), Ziyad Zolkefli (athletics), S. Suresh (archery), Wiro Julin (archery), Chew Wei Lun (boccia), Bonnie Bunyau Gustin (powerlifting), Nursaiful Zulkifri (swimming) and Brenda Anelia (swimming).