Reuters: Sport-Malaysia counts on big spending to boost sporting success

Oct 30 (Reuters) - After again narrowly missing out on their first Olympic gold medal in London earlier this year, Malaysia plans to spend 187.2 million ringgit ($61.24 million) in 2013 to boost the country's sporting performance.

"The challenge for us here is simply that that we don't just spend money, but to make sure that the money will generate sporting success," the Star daily reported youth and sports minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek as saying on Tuesday.

The figure is higher than spending in previous years and 8.5 million ringgit of the amount has been set aside for the biennial Malaysia Games, for under-21 athletes, to be held in Kuala Lumpur in June and July next year.

The heavy spending comes with the government hoping to shore up support among younger voters ahead of an election which it must call by April.

Malaysia won their first medal outside of badminton at the London Olympics this year, with Pandelela Rinong taking bronze in the women's 10 metre diving event.

"Although we didn't win gold this time, it was by far our best performance to date. And we know we can excel in different sports," Ahmad Shabery said.

($1 = 3.0570 Malaysian ringgits) (Reporting By Siva Sithraputhran. Editing by Patrick Johnston)

Source: http://uk.eurosport.yahoo.com/news/sport-malaysia-counts-big-spending-boost-sporting-success-061520746--spt.html

Olympics 2012: Pregnant Malaysian misses out on rifle shooting final

Eight-months pregnant Malaysian athlete Nur Suryani Mohamad Taibi has failed to make it to the Olympic 10m air rifle shooting final.

Suryani, 29, who is 33 weeks pregnant and is due to give birth on 13 September, finished in 34th position out of 56 competitors.

"When she kicks I breathe in and out and then continue," The BBC quoted Nur Suryani, as saying. When asked what she said to her daughter, who will be named Dayana Widyan, she said:, "Behave yourself, be calm, don't move so much. She always listened to me.

Suryani, who won a shooting gold at the 2010 Commonwealth Games, and needed special permission to fly to London for the Games because she is so heavily pregnant, will be returning to Malaysia on 31 July.

However, despite her defeat, she described competing at the Royal Artillery Barracks as a dream come true and said she would carry on shooting after the birth.

"I will still carry on because this is already my life. What I've heard is that a mother after delivery has fresh blood so they can perform better, I believe. That's the luck of being a woman," she said.

Source: http://www.dnaindia.com/sport/report_olympics-2012-pregnant-malaysian-misses-out-on-rifle-shooting-final_1721342

Malaysian Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi: The only pregnant Olympian

By Patrick JOHNSTON

KUALA LUMPUR, April 13 (Reuters) - When Malaysian shooter Nur Suryani Mohamed Taibi takes aim with her rifle at the London Olympics it will not just be nerves she will be attempting to control inside her.

The 29-year-old from Perak, situated 200 kilometres north of Malaysia's capital Kuala Lumpur, is due to give birth to her first child on Sept. 2, less than a month after the Games end.

"I will talk to the baby before I compete... 'no kicking, stay calm for one hour and 15 minutes only please'", Suryani told Reuters in an interview at her home shooting range in Kuala Lumpur.

"When I go to London, I will be 33 weeks, when I come back it will be 34 weeks.

"They (Malaysian National Olympic Committee) wanted to send me to London early because they are afraid, but what I hear from Malaysian airlines is that it is not recommended to travel for a pregnant woman from 35 weeks.

"I arrive around July 25th and I finish and come straight back, I won't be staying there very long. I don't think (I'll be attending the closing ceremony), we haven't planned anything."

While the sight of her swelling stomach on the range at the Royal Artillery Barracks in east London is likely to make her the most conspicuous of the 390 shooting competitors at the Games, there have been doubts from the Malaysian public about whether she should travel.

While shooting is not too physically taxing, the mental stress and pressure of Olympic competition are sure to have an effect on the her in the heat of battle.

Suryani said her family's health was imperative.

"They are thinking 'can you do that, can you do that'? I say 'no problem' because when you have some living things inside your stomach everywhere you go, you have company. You don't feel lonely, when I'm pregnant I don't have problems, I enjoy it.

"My aim is to compete. Maybe, at the end of June or whatsoever, if I have some problem that would jeopardise the baby inside me, I will reconsider whether I am going or not.

"But I feel I am strong and my husband says 'as long as you feel like that, energized to do that, it seems like that is your baby talking to you so you go'.

"The doctors say I am very good and very fit and it is OK for me to train up to eight months or nine months."

If, as planed, she does go, Suryani will not be there to just make up the numbers.

OVERCOMING STEREOTYPES

The tall markswoman won a bronze medal at the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou and she also claimed gold weeks earlier at the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, partnering Nur Ayuni Farhana Halim for the air rifle pairs.

In November, she won two gold medals in the Southeast Asian Games in the 10 metre air rifle and 50m rifle three position.

She achieved the Olympic qualifying marks in both disciplines in January at the Asian Champions in Qatar, days after finding out she was to become a mum, but her pregnancy will limit her to just the 10m event.

"Yeah, I cannot do a prone position with this big stomach," she laughs, amid the deafening noise as guns fire at the Subang Shooting Range situated at the end of a long, dusty lane near the domestic airport south of the capital.

"At first yes, I was disappointed not to compete in that one (three position) but when I think back, this is still a great opportunity."

Her determined, positive attitude is engaging and was essential in helping her overcome the stereotype in Malaysia that shooting is a man's sport.

"I said, 'whoa! it's like a man's job'," she remarks of the time when as a 15-year-old schoolgirl, her dad invited her to the shooting range for the first time.

"But I like a rough job like that, not something girlie or feminine, I don't like those types of sports so I tried and its been ok."

She hopes that her participation in London will help boost the profile of the sport among Malaysian women, but is she dreaming of becoming Malaysia's first Olympic gold medallist?

"Oh, I don't think about that yet," she added modestly.

"Anyhow, maybe they will say this is unfair because two persons shoot for one gold," she laughed, pointing to her bulge.

(Editing by Amlan Chakraborty/John O'Brien)

Source: http://london-games.reuters.com/london-olympics-2012/articles/shooting/2012/06/22/pregnant-malaysian-shooter-keen-deliver-london

Malaysian Olympian Nurul Syafiqah (Archery) has faith in teammates

Bi Fadhli ISHAK

MALAYSIA'S sole woman qualifier Nurul Syafiqah Hashim fancies her teammates' chances of joining her at the Olympics in the recurve team event as they prepare a last-gasp attempt to clinch qualification at the World Cup Stage 3 in Ogden, US which starts next week.

Nurul Syafiqah Hashim is hopeful Amirah Mohamed (left), Shahirah Abdul Halim (centre) and Ng Sui Kim (not in picture) will be able to join her in the recurve team event at the Olympics.

Nurul Syafiqah, who will be competing for a team berth for Malaysia at the event together with Shahirah Abdul Halim, Amirah Mohamed and Ng Sui Kim, said achieving a top-three finish, which ensures qualification, is within reach of the team.

    "They (teammates) are all much more experienced than me and have proven their ability in the past," said the Indonesia Sea Games silver medallist.
    "Coach (Lee Jae-Hyung) has told  us that we need a  total score of 215 and above to have a good chance of making the cut. We have managed to consistently achieve that score, or just slightly below it, during training.
    "All the teams who have qualified (for the Olympics)  will not be in the competition,  so making the top-three will not be as hard as at other competitions.
   "However, teams such as Iran, Iraq, Indonesia and Mongolia are sides that we will have to be wary of if we are to qualify and we cannot afford to be complacent."
    Nurul Syafiqah, who clinched qualification for the individual event at the Asian Championships in Teheran last year, added that having the women's team competing together at the Olympics would be a huge confident boost for her.
    "I am a little inexperienced when it comes to this level of competition and sometimes my nerves do get to me," she added. "It would be a big help if my teammates were there to guide me at the Games as they are more senior than me and will help me to cope better."
    Currently four Malaysians -- Cheng Chu Sian, Khairul Anuar Mohamad, Haziq Kamaruddin together with Nurul Syafiqah -- have qualified for the Olympics.

Source: http://www.nst.com.my/sports/other/archery-nurul-syafiqah-has-faith-in-teammates-1.93866

Malaysia clerics issue yoga fatwa

By Robin Brant BBC News, Kuala Lumpur

Millions of people in Malaysia have been banned from doing yoga because of fears it could corrupt Muslims.
The Islamic authorities have issued a ruling, known as a fatwa, instructing the country's Muslims to avoid yoga because of its Hindu roots.
To most people yoga is simply a sport - a stress-busting start to the day.
Malaysia's National Fatwa Council said it goes further than that and that elements of the Indian religion are inherent in yoga.
Announcing the decision, the council chairman Abdul Shukor Husin said practices like chanting and what he called worshipping were inappropriate and they could "destroy the faith of a Muslim".
The ruling is not legally binding but many of Malaysia's Muslims abide by fatwas.
Yoga classes here are filled with mostly non-Muslim Malaysians of Chinese or Indian descent, but in the major cities it is not uncommon to see several Muslim women at classes.
Prayers and gym
For Muslims across Malaysia the day starts at 5.30 in the morning, as the call to prayer goes out.
A handful of the most devout arrive at a mosque in the western outskirts of Kuala Lumpur.

Over the other side of the road, in the shadow of the Mosque's golden dome, a few others start arriving to start their day - at the gym.
Each is carrying a yoga mat, slung over their shoulder.
Adam Junid is a Muslim Malaysian who does both - prayers and gym, specifically yoga.
An engineer in his 30s, he goes to a weekly class for about 30 people.
"I don't think it interferes with the religion at all," he says.
"In fact it helps you, makes you healthy and more aligned and it helps you become self aware," he adds.
Adam is a rarity because it is mostly women and not many Muslims who do this.

"The yoga masters repeat that it actually can be quite compatible with religion," he said. "It makes you a better person."
Yoga comes in many forms. For some it is a stress-busting sport. For others a serious bit of soul searching.
What Adam does once a week is the serious stuff. The class I sat in on was two hours long.
Spiritual experience
It included breathing exercises, with the help of the tick-tock of a metronome.
There was meditation, then half an hour of darkness for intense relaxation.
Before that some of the class managed a very stable headstand. Others could touch the back of their head with their foot.
"It can go with any religion," instructor Mani Sekaran told me.
"Or it can go with those who don't believe in any religion, because it's purely sports," he added.
He is also founder of the Malaysian Yoga Society. A bald and very fit man, he once did martial arts.
"If I want to train for an Olympic gold medal... whether I believe in a religion or not doesn't matter. I just keep on training."

"Based on that we can use yoga to enhance whatever we are doing, whether it is religion or whether it's spirituality... but it [yoga] is stand alone."
During the class I sat in on, yoga's Hindu roots were mentioned, albeit briefly. A spiritual experience was on offer for those who wanted it.
This is the point where some Muslims in Malaysia worry about yoga. They think it is encroaching on their way of life.
One Muslim student told me that she combined yoga techniques with prayers. That concerns some Islamic experts.
"If people want to practice yoga, the physical exercise, I think that is no problem," Professor Osman Bakar, from Malaysia's Institute of Advanced Islamic Studies, told me.
"Many Muslims would say fine. But they would object to the mixing of the two things."
"Islam is a complete way of life. Islam is able to cater to the needs of Muslims; spiritual needs, intellectual needs and other needs, material needs. So there is no need to bring in elements from outside," he added.
Adam's yoga class ended with a quick discussion about self-awareness, concentration and why people do yoga. I was not sure if this was a weekly occurrence or for my benefit.
He told me that yoga has made him a better person. He has no plans to stop.

Fatwa on football?

Well, why not? If the National Fatwa Council is presumably on the verge of banning yoga because its origins are non-Islamic and foreign to Muslim teachings, it seems to me we ought to also be considering a fatwa on all forms of indulgence in football.
Football, particularly the organised form of the game, has its origins in the West – the heart of the infidel world! Indeed, the sport is something deeply embedded in the culture of these infidels. It is associated with, for those who passionately follow the sport, indulgence in excessive exuberance and cult like fanaticism. Its enthusiasts are often prone to engage in vices like excessive alcohol consumption, gambling, and even hooliganism.
Oh, and while they’re at it, we might as well suggest to these supposed ‘religious scholars’ that they may also want to issue a fatwa prohibiting men from cooking. You see apparently, ‘at [a] fatwa council meeting, the religious scholars have also decided to issue a fatwa against females from dressing or behaving like men and engaging in lesbian sex.Council chairperson Abdul Shukor had said that many young women admired the way men dress, behave and socialise, violating human nature and denying their feminity[sic].’
So in the interest of not ‘violating human nature’ and conversely ensuring that men don’t violate their masculinity, I think these co-called religious scholars ought to give serious consideration to issuing a fatwa that would put a stop to men cooking. Don’t you just see the serious threat it would pose to ‘human nature’ and the distinction between femininity and masculinity if we continued to allow men to indulge in hanging around the kitchen and cooking?
You see the fact is, these Taliban like characters who very likely know next to nothing about the origins of the science of yoga - let alone its practice – seem completely at ease to cast aspersions about a complex and scientifically oriented method of mind and body conditioning. Quite transparently, what we see unfolding here is more intent on regulating the lives of others than in respecting the rights of people to pursue their faith as they see it. Specifically, the subtext in these developments about potential fatwas against yoga and ‘tomboys’ seem to be more about patriarchal dominance – not religious sensibilities.
If I was to venture a guess, I would suspect that yoga, if it is at all appeals to any segment of Muslims, it must be drawing a disproportionate amount of attention among urbane women. Just as the concern over ‘human nature’ and ‘femininity’ is obviously directed at regulating women’s conduct.
Ironically, this strikes me as not too far removed from the idea some months back from the foreign and home ministries to require women travelling abroad to carry a permission letter from their employer or family member. Perhaps you remember that little episode?
Perhaps these ‘religious scholars’ are capable of explaining to the wider Muslim population (and others as well) precisely where in religious texts do we find admonitions against dressing like ‘tomboys’ or undertaking a specific form of exercising regiment? [Of course this does not even begin to address the problem of how would you exactly decide when one is 'guilty' of dressing like a 'tomboy.'] Indeed, from the Islamic scholarship and scholars I’ve consulted, one will find about as much stipulated against ‘tomboys’ and yoga as there is against football. Issuing a religious edict against ‘tomboys’ and yoga has about as much grounding in Islamic teaching as issuing a fatwa against football based on Islamic religious grounds. There’s no relevant and credible religious basis for it.
But there sure seems to be a lot of patriarchy as to why these Taliban like religious authorities might find it convenient and appealing to regulate the kind of conduct closely associated with women.
G. Krishnan
From: http://mt.m2day.org/2008/content/view/14402/84/