KUALA LUMPUR: The national contingent’s medal target for the 2022 ASEAN University Games (AUG) is expected to be announced later this month after the Malaysian Institutes of Higher Learning (IPT) Contingent Management Committee finishes analysing the final lists of the other countries’ contingents participating in the Games.
The committee’s chairman Dr Pekan Ramli said the analysis had to be done to identify the strength of the other countries’ contingents before finalising the medal target of the Malaysian camp at the Games in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand from July 26 to August 8.
“The matter (target) is still being discussed because there are no final lists (from the other contingents), so we have to wait first.
“After looking at the lists, we will analyse the extent of the challenge of the foreign athletes that we will face.
“The target will then be set because we do not want to simply set targets,” he said when contacted today.
Pekan said the medal target should be reasonable due to several constraints including most of the athletes who won medals at the recent SEA Games, Hanoi in Vietnam are not likely to participate in the Games.
“Besides that, during that period, there will also be the World Silat Championship in Melaka and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, whereby there will be athletes who will not be available for the AUG and therefore we have not set a medal target yet,” he said.
A total of 285 national athletes are expected to participate in 19 sports including badminton, swimming, karate, football, athletics and archery.
At the AUG 2018 edition in Myanmar, the national contingent emerged third overall after winning 37 gold, 43 silver and 49 bronze medals. – BERNAMA
