Cheong Jun Hoong Malaysia's ONLY World diving champion retires without anything

As diving world champ retires, PKR Youth urges rethink of funding cut


In the aftermath of the retirement of former diving world champion Cheong Jun Hoong yesterday, PKR Youth is calling for an urgent rethink of the termination of 144 athletes under the National Sports Council (NSC) Training Programme.

"Athletes who have made history for the country in international competitions have been dismissed due to lack of funds," said Selangor PKR Youth chief Chua Wei Kiat.

The NSC has explained that the decision came after Budget 2022 saw the sports industry only allocated RM244 million.

Cheong (above) had bagged gold for the 10m platform event in the 2017 World Aquatic Championships in Budapest, Hungary, and a silver in the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics for the 10m synchronised platform event with Pandelela Rinong.

"Out of a total of 432, only 288 athletes were retained who have the potential to win medals at the SEA Games in Vietnam, the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, and the Asian Games in Hangzhou this year.

"Do we only need to focus on athletes who have the potential to win medals when the country needs to produce potential backup athletes?" said Chua in a statement today.

Earlier, former world top-five squash player Low Wee Wern reacted sadly to being dropped, saying, "It definitely feels like I've been used and then tossed away."

Low recently underwent knee surgery in a bid to recover for this year's Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.

"The government should give priority to athletes both in terms of welfare and sports development, especially training for athletes," said Chua, who is also the Rawang assemblyperson.

"The Ministry of Youth and Sports needs to be prudent in using existing allocations and focus on sports development, not on things that are less needed.

"PKR Youth urges the government to reconsider the funding cut as this would affect the development of national sports, let alone in the country's efforts to find backup athletes as well as the country's declining sports performance," he added.

He said it is better for the government to stop wasting millions of ringgit by appointing 'special envoys with ministerial status' who do no work.

"Any appointments that lead to wastage should be cancelled, and the allocation returned to the sports industry so that the country can produce world-class athletes," he added.

At present, Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob has four special envoys in Abdul Hadi Awang (Middle East), Tiong King Sing (China), Richard Riot (Japan, Korea, and Taiwan), and SA Vigneswaran (India and South Asia).