SHAH ALAM, Aug 11 — The Selangor state government will contribute RM10,000 to every state athlete representing Malaysia at the 2020 Tokyo Paralympic Games.
State Youth Generation Development, Sports and Human Capital Committee chairman, Mohd Khairuddin Othman said the assistance would be for Muhammad Ziyad Zolkifli, who is competing in the F20 shot put event and Muhammad Hafiz Jamali, who is taking part in the 1 kilometre (km) time trial C5 track cycling event before leaving for Tokyo, Japan.
"The amount given to the Paralympic athletes is the same as that given to the Olympic athletes previously,” he said when contacted by Bernama today.
The media had reported that 22 athletes, including four women, would represent Malaysia in nine sports at the Tokyo Paralympics to be held from August 24 to September 5.
The state government had given RM10,000 each to four Selangor athletes, Phee Jing En (swimming), Lee Hup Wei (high jump), Gavin Kyle Green (golf) and Farah Ann Abdul Hadi (artistic gymnastics) for their expenses during the Tokyo Olympic Games that concluded on August 8.
On the preparations by athletes for the upcoming 2020 Johor Malaysia Games (Sukma), Mohd Khairuddin said they were still training individually at home under the supervision of their coaches via video and they would need to take a fitness test every fortnight.
"The postponement of the 2020 Johor Sukma will not affect Selangor athletes in their training while waiting for the new date of the event to be set.
"We also plan to conduct training using the sports bubble method but we need to wait until Phase Two of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) begins,” he said.
Mohd Khairuddin said if training could be conducted, they would set medal targets for several events, including swimming, athletics, shooting and archery.
— Bernama
