SERDANG – The fate of the athletes listed in the Road to Gold (RTG) programme will be revealed in an evaluation committee meeting this Tuesday.
Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh, who also co-chairs the RTG Committee, confirmed that the meeting – which will decide whether the programme will retain the selected athletes, drop or add more to the list – will take place at the National Sports Council in Bukit Jalil.
“There are various possibilities… so we will wait for the RTG committee meeting next week (Tuesday),” she said at a press conference after officiating the convocation ceremony of the Youth and Sports Skills Training Institute at the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang here today.
Hannah also stressed that the main purpose of RTG is to add value to the existing services enjoyed by athletes who have the potential to win the country’s first Olympic gold at the 2024 Paris Games.
Among the athletes already listed in the RTG programme are track cyclist Datuk Mohd Azizulhasni Awang, badminton men’s doubles Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik, and diver Datuk Pandelela Rinong.
In the meantime, Hannah said the RTG meeting on Tuesday will also touch on the direction of the country’s squash players as the sport makes its debut at the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles.
The RTG project introduced by the Youth and Sports Ministry in April is a national project with the aim of coordinating the country’s efforts in hunting for Malaysia’s first Olympic gold medal at the 2024 Paris Games and the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.
Earlier, the sports ministry had set two main criteria for RTG athletes – medal winners at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics and those ranked in the top 10 in their respective world rankings.
Earlier, Hannah presented certificates to 3,611 recipients from the Youth and Sports Skills Training Institute across Peninsular Malaysia, which involved graduates of certificate, advanced certificate, diploma and advanced diploma levels.
She is also proud that the employability rate of the institute’s graduates, which has exceeded 90% for three consecutive years, proves that the sports ministry can produce young, skilled workers to fill the country’s skilled and semi-skilled workforce needs.
Hannah also added that her ministry will continue to be committed to dignifying the field of Technical Education and Vocational Training to ensure that youth remain competitive and become employers’ top choice. – October 28, 2023