NO GOLD: Ahmad Shabery takes full responsibility over failure to deliver medal
DESPITE the fanfare surrounding Lee Chong Wei's silver medal and Pandelela Rinong Pamg's bronze, there is no denying that Malaysia failed to meet their target at the London Olympics which ended on Sunday.
And Sports Minister Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek has assumed full responsibility over the national contingent's failure to deliver the country's first Olympic gold medal as promised.
Though he regards the overall performance as the country's best ever at the Olympics, Ahmad Shabery believes there is still a lot to be done if the national contingent is to be prepared for the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
Amidst claims that he had promised to resign as Sports Minister if the country failed to meet its target, Ahmad Shabery chose to apologise to Malaysians.
"I wish to apologise to the Malaysian people for our failure to win our first gold medal at the Olympics," Ahmad Shabery told reporters at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport, Sepang where he welcomed Pandelela home yesterday.
"I had never said I would resign from my post as Sports Minister if we failed to win a gold medal. However, I will take full responsibility for our failure.
"Although we did not win a gold medal, the performances by our athletes in London is the best we have managed in the competition so far as we have managed to win our first medal outside of badminton.
"Lee Chong Wei had also come very close (to winning gold), but sometimes there is an element of luck as well."
Overall, Malaysians featured in the final stages of eight events at the Olympics -- five finals in diving, one in open water swimming, one in cycling and one in badminton.
"That is a marked improvement compared to our previous participation in the Olympics. And for the first time we won a medal through a woman and from a sport other than badminton."
He noted that the likes of cyclist Azizulhasni Awang can be regarded as ranked among the top six keirin riders in the world as he made the final of his event, while marathon swimmer Heidi Gan finished 16th, a creditable achievement in the 10km open water swimming event.
"Pandelela is the third best in the world in her event. We are continuing to see more and more of our athletes establish themselves amongst the top echelon of their sports," said Ahmad Shabery.
"On top of that, Pandelela is only 19 years old, Azizulhasni only 24. We have a young breed of athletes who can still go for a few more Olympics.
"So immediately after this we will hold a post-mortem and gather all the information and begin the process of preparing our athletes to go for gold in Rio de Janeiro."
Ahmad Shabery also revealed that the government would be speeding up the building of new facilities planned for cycling and badminton as there is an urgent need to bolster facilities that cater to their development.
"We've been planning an academy for badminton, an indoor velodrome for cycling and also the upgrading of our facilities for diving," said Ahmad Shabery.
"These have now all been made priority projects and the government will speed up their delivery."