Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh promised to look into the lack of training facilities for national shuttlers after paying a visit to the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) on Friday, while also promising to help sports associations.
“I will look to resolve the shortage of training facilities at the soonest when I look at the paperwork and speak to the Stadium Board. When the shuttlers are lacking in training facilities they have to manage their time accordingly.
“When that happens, it may not be the optimum situation for them,” Yeoh said after meeting the contingent bound for the Asia Team Championships in Dubai next week.
The ABM currently has 18 courts that are used by both junior and senior shuttlers.
But with the professional shuttlers now also invited by the national body to train at ABM, lack of courts and gym time are among the concerning factors.
Yeoh also promised to look into more funding for sports associations as a whole.
“Sponsorship is a big problem, and that’s the reason I hope this coming budget will be able to offer some kind of hope and benefit to help sports associations manage tournaments.
“Going for tournaments is not cheap, there are high logistics costs involved. But we cannot cut costs and skip these tournaments because that is how the athletes will improve their ranking. That is why when I discuss with the government on budget, we will need a new model.
“We can’t do things like how we did 20 years ago,” she said.
Yeoh also said she met up with the professional shuttlers including Lee Zii Jia to hear the challenges faced by them.
She also promised the government will back every athlete that has potential to deliver a medal at the Olympics through a soon to be launched campaign.
