The Malaysian 4 x 400 men relay squad or easily termed the 1600 meters relay team won the gold at the Palembang SEA games, Indonesia - Track and Field event. This win is unprecedented and its been a while since a Malaysian men quartet last won the gold at SEA games for this event.
During the prize awarding ceremony, the four Malaysians were not at the rostrum to receive their medals so I read.
REASON 1 : they were already on their way home without collecting their gold medals. (NOT ACCEPTABLE)
REASON 2 : MAAU (Malaysian Amateur Athletic Union) or whoever in-charge had booked the boys to fly home immediately after their event. (GROSSLY NOT ACCEPTABLE)
REASON 3 : I can only guess MAAU don't wana incur more charges for the air-fare deferment.
Now, there is a need to ponder the very quality of success here and come to grasp what winning is all about. What kind of a nation would make it's prize winning athletes go home just because they were booked to fly home much earlier?
I mean how much will it cost the Malaysian contingent to differ the flights of the four athletes so that they could proudly stand on the rostrum and collect their prized medals.
Do you know what it takes to shoulder the nation's hopes on your shoulders and carry that burden through the partisan hostile stadium crowd when all they do is scream and jeer on you while you're on a mission to do honour, duty and glory for your country you love via sports?
Only few can go through that and these four young men did exactly that to win and that too in full honour and pride. For their gallant sportsmanship deeds, what did the country do to them; they were send back home packing by MAAU to save a few hundreds of ringgit on air-fare.
I begin to wonder, which is more in value - the honour and pride of carrying the nation in victory or money. Malu la.
How can athletes be sent home without collecting their awards? By what sport's gesture is this anyway? As an ex-athlete, I've never nor heard of such. And never on an international arena.
The funny irony of this is that - the four boys were not meant to appear at the games what more win. How more sick can the Malaysian contingent be by denying them the pinnacle of glory when the ultimate and poignant point of glory is when your name is flashed on the gigantic score board, whilst the nation's anthem is played and seeing the jalur gemilang raised in honour.
Believe me, its not the win but the way the win is made to be seen is what glorifies an athlete. That very indecisive moment was lost for the four quarter milers. Just for a few hundreds of ringgit in expenses, the gold medal winning run had become irrelevant to MAAU.
What sort of a Chef-De-Mission did they get to 'chaperon' the Malaysian contingent?
Shame on you Malaysia. Sheer shame.
You don't deserve the gold medal standings for this event and neither should you talk about the glory of the four athletes to make yourself proud.
As for the four boys who ran the event, and I strongly believe, they must have given their hearts and sweat to win - they rightly won the medals for themselves and NOT for the nation.
Have you ever heard the saying - for the love and glory of the country?
Malu malu malu on youla - Malaysian Amateur Athletic Union.
Memang malu la. Ceh! I pun rasa malu and disgusted.
MAAU remember, these boys aren't professionals. They are merely amateurs. The last thing they need is to be treated like dirt by the very country they give their hearts for.
This ain't no way to treat your athletes. Really ain't no way.
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