KUALA LUMPUR: Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin stressed that the dropping of three sports – Weightlifting, Sepak Takraw and Taekwondo — from the Podium Programme under the National Sports Council (NSC) is not a form of punishment. Khairy said that the National Sports Council’s (NSC) decision was made after a careful and detailed analysis carried out over a period of six months and it is a first since 2007. The Podium Programme began in 2005 with the purpose of increasing athlete participation in eight sports that was listed back then – Athletics, Aquatics, Swimming, Diving, Bowling, Football, Badminton, Hockey, Squash and Gymnastics. However, three years later, the NSC added 11 more sports – Archery, Cycling, Lawn Bowl, Karate, Silat, Shooting, Sepak Takraw, Taekwondo, Weightlifting and Wushu which expanded the list to 19 core sports in all. "They will need to find ways and means to develop or come up with their own programmes,” he said.

Source: New Strait Times December 12, 2017 13:07 UTC