KUALA LUMPUR – The Youth and Sports Ministry and National Sports Council (NSC) will consider providing an allocation to the national lawn bowls squad, which has produced outstanding performance on the international stage.
Minister Hannah Yeoh said NSC are working on certain aspects of their budget to ensure they have sufficient funds to channel to lawn bowls and other sports which are not on the list of core sports.
She said this was needed to ensure the ministry could review the method for channelling allocation to every sport aligns with the planning of sports associations.
“I met national lawn bowler Nor Farah Ain Abdullah and listened to the plans of the Malaysia Lawn Bowls Federation (MLBF) and today I will discuss with NSC how we can help them.
“Based on (the lawn bowls) performance, they deserve government assistance,” she told reporters when met at the MLBF Fiestabowls Programme here today.
On the decision to include lawn bowls back into the Podium Programme, Hannah said it would depend on the ministry and NSC’s budget.
“As for the Podium Programme planning, we already have a new management board, and the NSC already have plans for improvement…surely (we will include potential sports) depending on the budget,” she said.
The national lawn bowls squad have performed well since last September, with Nur Ain Nabilah Tarmizi-Aleena Ahmad Nawawi emerging as the women’s pairs champions in the World Bowls Championships in Gold Coast, Australia.
In April, Farah Ain made Malaysian history when she won the gold medal at the 2024 World Indoor Bowls Championships in Guernsey.
NSC said last year that lawn bowls would be included in the Podium Programme but there has been no development thus far.
The sport of lawn bowls was in the Podium Programme during preparations for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games before being omitted following its exclusion in the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games and 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games. – May 9, 2024