KJ leaves to CDM to handle athletes' disciplinary issues

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin will leave it to the Malaysian contingent's Chef-de-Mission for the 2017 SEA Games, Datuk Marina Chin, to determine the fate of two national athletes who allegedly left their training camp longer than the time allowed.

Although the athletes had explained to him their action, Khairy said it was important that they adhere to the disciplinary rules set by the management.

"Discipline needs to be prioritised, so I leave it to Datuk Marina, we have the CDM to ensure this does not happen again.

"We have heard the reasons given by both athletes who violated the disciplinary code, we accept their clarification... (however) I hope the monitoring of athletes in our base camp can be further enhanced, so that no incident (like this) happens again," he told reporters after attending Mycorps South Asia's meet and greet session here, on Wednesday.

Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary-general Datuk Low Beng Choo was reported to have confirmed that two national athletes, from the futsal and badminton squads, respectively, had violated a rule not to leave the Kuala Lumpur Renaissance Hotel more than certain hours a day.

More than 700 athletes are currently at the hotel for the contingent's final central training camp ahead of the SEA Games, and throughout their stay, including during the Games from August 19-30, they are not allowed to leave the premises after 11.30pm.

Commenting on sprint athlete S. Komalam, who was dropped due to disciplinary issues, Khairy said the decision was based on an assessment by the Technical Committee which managed the selection of athletes.

"It was a disciplinary case...and the decision was made based on the assessment of the team's manager, and found her (Komalam Shally) to be disrupting the preparation of other athletes as well,” he said.

-- BERNAMA