How Rio2016 Logo Emerge

London2012 had pulled down the curtain. Now its Brazil's turn to make the next Olympic happens - Rio2016.

Most of us are aware of the Rio2016 logo comprising of three humans holding hands. How do the come up with the logo.

The Behind The Scene video of how the logo are made can be seen HERE

Just too bad we can't understand the explanation because it is not in English.

Tahniah CEO Baru ISN

My Sukan mengucapkan tahniah atas perlantikan En Ahmad Shapawi Ismail sebagai CEO baru Institut Sukan Negara menggantikan Datuk Dr Ramlan Abdul Aziz. Datuk Dr Ramlan kini dilantik sebagai penasihat khas Menteri Belia dan Sukan.

Semoga dengan perlantikan tersebut akan terus memantapkan lagi pembangunan sukan di negara ini kerana impian emas olimpik kita terpaksa di carry forward ke Rio2016.
http://www.sinarharian.com.my/sukan/zolkples-pelantikan-ahmad-shapawi-mampu-bawa-perubahan-pada-isn-1.77316

Datuk Punch Gunalan Remembered

My Sukan would like to extend condolence to the family of late Datuk Punch Gunalan 

Datuk Punch Gunalan (2 April 1944 – 15 August 2012) was a male badminton star of Malaysia, considered one of the finest combination doubles and singles players that the country has ever produced. He was born in Sepang, Selangor.

He was a talented right-hander who spent what might have been some of the best years of his playing career competing only sporadically as a student in England. Gunalan did not represent Malaysia in Thomas Cup (the men's world team championship) until the 1970 series in Kuala Lumpur at the comparatively late "rookie" age of 26. Here Malaysia relinquished its title to Indonesia in the final, 2--7, with Gunalan and Ng Boon Bee in doubles gaining one of the two points. In 1971 Gunalan and Boon Bee were the leading men's doubles team in the world, winning the prestigious All Englandtitle, as well as the Danish, Canadian, and U.S. Open titles.

Though perhaps less consistent in singles than he was in doubles, Gunalan was capable of playing it at the highest level. He reached the All-Englandsingles final in 1974, losing in three close games to the iconic Rudy Hartono. He won singles at the quadrennial Asian Games in 1970 and at the quadrennial Commonwealth Games in 1974.

Since retiring as a player after 1974, Gunalan has served in various stints as coach of the Malaysian team, an official in the Malaysian Badminton Association, and as an official in the International Badminton Federation (now Badminton World Federation).

He passed away on 15 August 2012 after suffering from a critical illness. He was 68.^[1]

- Wikipedia

Datuk Punch passed away at 6.00am 15th August 2012 after a long battle with liver cancer. He was 68 when he passed away. 

Condolence 

Back To The Drawing Board For Rio2016

Now that London2012 Olympic flame had been distinguish we are looking towards Rio2016. Doing better than Beijing 2008 with an addition of a Bronze from Pandalela, our Sports Association should go back to the drawing board to chart out our future in Rio2016. 

Even though we did not achieve our dream of bringing back our first Gold but our athletes does in one way or another, accounted for, the spending that the government had provided. 

Read NSTP's Group Managing Director summary of London2012 HERE.  

When I was lecturing on National Coaching Accrediation Scheme Sports Science course about Sports Philosophy, there is one sub topic mentioning about the Coaching Process. The Coaching Process is one of the elements that coaches and sports managers has to comply. 

Is consists of :-
1. Data Collection
2. Diagnosis
3. Set Blueprint
4. Implementation
5. Evaluation

The Coaching Process is a cycle as the diagram below shows.

Sports Association who had representative at London2012 has to go back to the drawing board with the data that they have in terms of performance, environment, technological assistance etc at the Olympics. Combine that with new data for Rio2016. For example weather in Rio is different from London. This is data for coaches to prepare athletes.  

Back to our Tigers who competed in London, there are a few athletes that can still compete in Rio and their performance should be upgraded to enable them to give a competitive edge.

We still have athletes who are in their teens or early 20 who still can compete in two or more Olympics ahead as long as they are not burnt out or reached their plateaus. Some of our London2012 athletes were actually prepared for Rio2016 such as Azizul Hasni Awang and Khairulnizam Mohd Affendy can be considered our precious gems that should be well prepared for the next Olympic. 

Four years is not a long wait and these athletes who will be in their transition phase after London2012 should be busy again when coaches chart out their 4 year periodization plan for Rio2016. Maybe we are not worried about having the service of our young athletes in London except maybe from badminton if Dato' Lee Chong Wei decide to retire. 

Personally I think Dato' Lee should consider still represent Malaysia for Rio2016. Maybe it is too much to ask him to stay when he will be 33 then, but 33 is still within the competitive age for high performance considering experience. He may consider retiring if there is/are another player of his calibre to fly the Jalur Gemilang. Our Golden dream is not shelved but carry forward to Rio2016. Dato' Lee, you are still our golden hope. 

Pandalela might be a surprise to many for winning the bronze. Thats why a facebooker challenged her to cut off his ***** if Pandalela strike a medal. Pandalela did and that guy chickened out and deleted his facebook account. When she won that Bronze, Pandalela will be the athlete to look out for in Rio2016. With the experience, she could upgrade herself to silver and who knows the glittering Gold. 

Azizul Hasni Awang is sixth in the world in Keirin track event (considering London2012). At 24 years old he still can compete in two more Olympics. Based on Dato' Naim's statement when interviewed by Astro Arena , Azizul is being prepared for Rio2016 and his opportunity to compete in London will be his experience collecting mission. Take out Chris Hoy Azizul is 5th best. Chris will be 40 by then and I don't think he will compete in Rio2016. 

Even Khairulnizam Mohd Affendy from sailing was not projected for London2012 but Rio2016 instead. However, compared to Azizul, chances for him is quite slim considering he was 47th out of 49 sailors in the Men's Laser. But anything can happen within this 4 years of preparation. 

Archer Mohd Khairul Anwar  too can be out best bet for a medal in Rio2016 if he can maintain while improving his skills. He was among the 8 best archer having reached the Quarter final. He is 20 but in sports such archery, age is not a factor unlike other tough physical requirement sports. 

Within this four years we hope to unearth more Olympians from the Pelapis Program of National Sports Council. We have already seen promising athletes from this program showing their worth at regional and international competitions.

Besides athletes, we too need to unearth more local coaches. After the Jaya 98 success, I think NSC plan to groom more local coaches when they bid for 2006 Asian Games. However the success rate is not very promising. We still have to depend on foreign coaches to harvest medals at international competitions. Badminton aside, our hopefuls for medal winning athletes still comes from foreigners. 

Azizul Hasni awang has John Beasly, Pandalela Rinong has Yang Zhuliang while Mohd Khairul Anwar has  Lee Jae-hyung. Maybe archer can be certain to still keep Lee since he has been given PR status. However Yang Zhuliang has been reported to have an offer from Australia. If Zhuliang take up the offer, then Pandalela and maybe other divers might have a problem with their preparation for the future. Coach-athlete relation is not an overnight connection. It has to take time before both parties can sync between each other. 

I am not sure whether there is an understudy local coach for our athletes. Sorry to say some foreign coaches do not squeeze out and expose all their knowledge and experience when they coach our athletes. Thats why sometimes back our foreign coaches are very reluctant to learn to speak Bahasa Malaysia or even English and that contribute to communication problem. Communication is an important element in sports coaching. Verbal instructions and non verbal instructions should be used hand in hand for an effective communication.  

London2012 - Final Medal Tally

London 2012 pull down the curtain and next destination is Rio2016 in four years time. The final medal tally is:

 

 

 

 

Reference to Beijing 2008 Medal Tally HERE

Islam And Sports

We tend to seperate religion and sports when both compliment each other. We take it for granted that sports is a different agenda all together from sports activities. This is a wrong preception since both components are part of what makes us humans. Both is are avenues for one to express oneself accordingly. When we are down, we ask from god. When we play sports we ease ourself from stress. 

Majlis Sukan Negara Malaysia is a government statutory body that is assigned to develop sports in Malaysia especially high performance sports. However how many of us are aware that Majlis Sukan Negara has a Unit to inculcate spiritual development especially among Muslim sportsmen. Most might think that this is not necessary but in Islam and other religion too, we believe that our life is being managed by god and for that matter we must request the consent from god to perform our daily life.

Unit Hal Ehwal Agama Islam (UHEAI) at Majlis Sukan Negara established since Dato' Wira Mazlan Ahmad was the Director General. since its emergence, the unit worked hard to inculcate spiritual strength among Muslim athletes and among the staff of the organisation. Religuous programs were organised from time to time for athletes and staff such as motivational sessions and educational activities.

During the last Isra and Mikraj celebration organised at  Surau Al Mutaqqin, Vista MSN where some of MSN's staff were housed I had the opportunity to attend the function called MIMTA 2012 (Majlis Isra Mikraj dan Tahlil Arwah) and they invited Ustaz Zulkifli Ahmad to give a talk tittled 1 Perjalanan 1000 Pengajaran.  During his talk, Uztaz Zulkifli questioned why can't Islam be developed through sports. Islam just like other aspect of entertainment has followers. Today sportsmen has become iconic figures with fans behind them.

Every now and then we can see on the field especially in soccer, Muslim players pray to god either before or after their activities or after doing something successful. Ustaz Zulkifli doa before a game or after victory is the easiest form of dakwah that an athlete can do to change the perception of their fans about sports and that whatever we do we must convey our thanks to god and for this matter Allah for Muslims. It is just to change the habit. Instead of celebrating victory with unnecessary gestures which might show ones egoism or pride, why not pray to God. It is He who makes you succeed. Remember who hold fate? 

 Credit: All these photos were taken from Facebook post and credit to the respective photographers.

So, Muslim athletes perform your duty to be a preacher with the easiest task, raise your hand and DOA. Allah will reward you.

IF YOU BELIEVE IN ALLAH, HE WILL BE BEHIND YOUR VICTORY

Bronze From Pandalela at Olympic Diving London 2012

CONGRATULATIONS TO PANDALELA RINONG
Olympic Diving Photos - Diving Photo Galleries | London 2012
http://www.london2012.com/diving/event/women-10m/phase=dvw002100/index.html

Photo Credit

Pandalela created history for herself and Malaysia for being the first Malaysian for:

• First Malaysian women to win a medal at the Olympics
• Breaking the dominance of Badminton as as medal winner at Olympics
• Youngest Malaysian Women to win a medal at Olympics
• First women as flag bearer for Malaysian contingent

Both Photo Credits

UPDATE

Bronze For Heroic Pandalela - NST
The bronze means Pandelela has won a medal at every level, including a silver in the 10m platform at the 2010 Junior Olympics at Sydney.

It also means she will receive RM150,000 from the National Sports Council and a lifetime pension of RM2,000 monthly.

This Bloggers comment: She has a few more Olympics to dive and can she has the potential to deliver our first Olympic Gold Medal at Rio2016, being to find a replacement at Dato' Lee Chong Wei's calibre is far fetched.   

MILO® PLAY MORE, LEARN MORE® campaign

Everytime when there is a sports function, one will hardly miss the most common sight of a green Milo van distributing FREE Milo drinks. Children especially will be much more than happy to line up and get a cup of Cold  nutritiousness Milo Drinks and might go back to the end of the line for another cuppa. But even adults will not shy away from the green Milo van. 

Milo and Sports has been very synonymous and been growing together with Malaysian sports and during major sporting events, we can see Milo banners and people wearing T's bearing Milo motifs at most places. 

Sports is lifelong activities and is one of the best enhancer towards a healthy body and mind. We use to hear about a Healthy Mind is in a Healhty Body and the proverb All Study and No Play makes Jack  Dull boy. Since sports is a lifelong activity, Milo that has been growing with sports embarks on a mission to instill Learning Life's Lessons Through Sports through their program MILO® PLAY MORE, LEARN MORE® campaign. 

 Nestle Milo’s initiative here is to inculcate sports participation among children which has been deteriorating lately. The pressure for Malaysian children to succeed academically is greater today than ever, and in the process, play time for sports is being pushed aside. In a society obsessed with academic achievement, parents and caregivers equate success solely to academics at the exclusion of play time for sports. What parents and caregivers should understand is that, involvement in sports can play a major role in the physical, social and emotional aspect of a child’s growing process. Great sportsmen begins at childhood stage. 

This is what Datuk Marina Chin, Principal of SMS Bukit Jalil has to say about sports;

Datuk Marina was once our track Queen in the 70s and no women has yet to come close to her achievement on the track. The only other women in Malaysian sports is Pn Hjh Zaiton Othman who is with National Sports Council.

How does the MPML philosophy works?

Identifying the very need of sports in every child’s life, Nestlé MILO^® has been advocating sports among children through the MILO^® PLAY MORE, LEARN MORE^® campaign since 2009 and continues to play an active role in the grassroots level to promote play time for sports among children.

This nationwide commitment targets children aged 6 to 12, families and local communities. Including the local communities in this camp is among the many ways for MILO^® to understand the real needs required at grassroots level. MILO^® works closely with local communities by providing financial assistance and necessary equipments while local communities contribute by encouraging the community to come together and participate during the camp.

It is hopes that the MILO^® PLAY MORE, LEARN MORE^® campaign will help educate mothers on the importance of sports for children.

You too can help promote Malaysia grow more sportsmen of the future by getting our children involve in sports. Are we satisfied only  some world class sports men such Dato' Lee Chong Wei, Nicol Ann David, Azizul Hasni Awang or Pandalela Rinong just to name a few. 

You can download the infographic from this link and click the rectanglular box as shown below. 

Note: Please do not click the other download radio button because they are only advertisements and you do not want to end up spending your credit with unwanted subscriptions.

No Gold But LCW Hit The World

Going by the article on Forbes, Dato' Lee Chong Wei might be the most talked about man in cyberworld immediately after his long stroke shuttle hit outside the the back boundary line and missed the much awaited Gold Medal at London2012. 

Gist of the report: 

• 16,847 tweets per minute mentioning about the outcome of the Sunday match
• mentions of Lee Chong Wei himself have spiked to over 9,200 tweets per minutes!
• Lee Chong Wei garnered nearly 500,000 mentions on Sunday. (Lin Dan only 238,000 mentions)
• added close to 50,000 new followers on Twitter in 24 hours after his match.
• #ThankYouLeeChongWei reached No. 3 in the Twitter’s Worldwide Trends list after the match ended

ESPN commentator is right when he said:

Jonathan Liew of The Telegraph wrote: he [Lee Chong Wei] may be Malaysia’s only genuinely world-class athlete, with all the crushing expectation that entails. 

London2012 is still running (at this blog post time) but it has already filled with attractions. Nor Suryani Mohd Taibi, became first women to compete with an eight month pregnancy period and won her the Baron de' Coubertain medal. A Korean fencer, Shin A-Lam  refuses to leave the piste being not satisfied with the judging and losing to Germany's Britta Heidermann in the Women's Individual Epee. 

Will Lee Chong Wei - Lin Dan's clash be part of Olympic history to date?

Can Dato' Lee Chong Wei be nominated as "Malaysia's Man of The Year 2012". He has showed us that sports is the uniting factor of one country especially when it relates to Malaysia being a multi-ethnical country. 

Athletics Men's 100m Final @ London 2012 Olympic Games

The fastest man at London 2012 has been crowned during the American Jamaica showdown in the Olympic Stadium. Three Americans and three Jamaicans and the Jamaicans made a One Two finish when their women counterpart made a One Third finish on Saturday 4th August 2012. 

Our Golden Dream Carry Forward To Rio 2016

When the shuttlecock falls outside the back boundary line on Lin Dans court it seals off our hope of bringing home the first ever Gold Medal from the Olympic that we participated (as Malaya) since 1956. Sabah too sent an independant team to the 1956 Olympic as North Borneo

To date Malaysia had won five Olympic Medals and all came from Badminton.Our first Olympic medal was from the Sidek brothers of Razif and Jailani in 1992 Barcelona Olympics and it was a Bronze. Then in the next Olympic at Atlanta in 1996, Malaysia achieved a Silver and a Bronze. Ever since our best achievement is just a Silver. That's why London 2012 is our first Gold target. Malaysia is hoping the Gold comes from Dato' Lee Chong Wei because he is World number one badminton player but Lin Dan played a better game  to dash our hope.   

Medal	Name	Games	Sport	Event
Bronze	Razif Sidek & Jalani Sidek	1992 Barcelona	Badminton	Men's doubles
Silver	Cheah Soon Kit & Yap Kim Hock	1996 Atlanta	Badminton	Men's doubles
Bronze	Rashid Sidek	1996 Atlanta	Badminton	Men's singles
Silver	Lee Chong Wei	2008 Beijing	Badminton	Men's singles
Silver	Lee Chong Wei	2012 London	Badminton	Men's singles

Graphic from HERE

Dato' Lee Chong Wei lost to his arch rival Lin Dan from China at Wembly Arena in London in a hard fought match. He wins the first game 21-15 but went down in the second game 10-21 and finally in the rubber 19-21. He gave out all his best to fulfill the hopes of 28 million Malaysians.

There are also comments that he depended on painkillers to play the finals which led to National Sports Institute has to come out with this statement;

Oneisn M'sia

Untuk pengetahuan umum, saya ingin menjelaskan bahawa Datuk Lee Chong Wei bukannya "on painkillers all the time". Pertamanya "painkillers" adalah ubat penahan sakit seperti Pethidine dan Morphine, kelas opiates, yang dilarang pengambilannya dalam sukan. Ubat yang diambil adalah "non-steroidal anti-inflammatory" atau NS

AID misalnya Voltaren, Cataflam - yang ada mengurangkan radangan dan olehitu dapat mengurangkan kesakitan. Keduanya, beliau bukan sentiasa mengambil ubat NSAID. Hanya apabila perlu, mengikut keadaan dan dengan arahan doktor. Penggunaan istilah yang longgar dan maklumat yang tidak tepat mungkin menimbulkan tanggapan negatif kepada orangramai serta tidak menguntungkan sesiapa. Terima kasih / Dato' Dr. Ramlan Abd. Aziz, Ketua Pegawai Perubatan Kontingen

Then post on Facebook was this uncalled for comments from a Malaysian who tries to make a mockery of the outcome on his tweeter that angered sports fan. He should not have made the comments in the first place at the time when all Malaysians feels sad with the lost. Every Malaysian was looking forward for Dato' Lee Chong Wei to bring back our first Olympic Gold. he did his best but lost to a better player. That is sports and a sportsman accept defeat with decorum and not send out sarcastic messages to the players. 

Then again our media practice is not much of help to heal the wound with this Kosmo frontpage. Kosmo think that Dato' Lee played for the RM 4 million perks and personally I think this is an insult to Dato' Lee. Even though the Editor put in a mild way but when he bring up the issue of monetary gain, it gives a negative perception to the public. If Dato' Lee did win the Gold medal, the public might think that he won because of the money and not for the pride. When will our media change and be a sportsmanship enhancer?

New Straits Times put it in a consoling way with full respect to Dato' LCW while Berita Harian published his apology to the people of Malaysia. However most sports fans in Malaysia specifically and the world over generally (based on Facebook comments) wanted Dato' Lee to reserve his apology because they had seen how he fought all the way to the last point. Sports fans are satisfied with his performance even though Malaysia loose the expected Gold medal.

Dato' Lee himself posted his apology to the people of Malaysia on his tweeter 

Even badminton fans from China respected Dato' Lee's sporting spirit when we ourself making negative comments. 

This post is from Lin Dan's Fans Club in China. It reads:

(Translation)Thank you very much, Lee Chong Wei, Thank you for being such a noble and worthy opponent, and thank you for 10 years of company - without Lee Chong Wei's worthiness, there will not be any Lin Dan's worthiness; without Lee Chong Wei's persistence and perseverance, there will not be any progression for Lin Dan. Lee Chong Wei missed his first Gold Medal, but he didn't fail. We felt for his cries.

Credit: Christopher Tock

Credit

Finally the pic that show Dato' Lee.

Photo Credit 

Photo Credit

IPT 3 On 3 Basketball Carnival

Universiti Malaysia Pahang will organise this carnival at UMP Sports Complex. The circulated letter I copied from this Facebook page.