Champions of the day

DATUK Nicol Ann David did Malaysian proud. She stamped her mark at the World Women Squash Championship in Amsterdam, Holland yesterday. She grabbed the title to be the champion once again. It's her fourth title at the championship. Her victory strengthened her reputation as the world No. 1. Well...hope to see more Malaysian athletes stand tall at the world scene. Anyway...keep up the good job SRAM but need to produce more players of Nicol's ability.
In Formula One, Lewis Hamilton of Mclaren dominated the Singapore Grand Prix. Despite going through tough time from the beggining of the season, Hamilton came back strongly and he still have the guts to be a champion. A champion will never give up anyway although been going through difficult times. This served a good lesson for Lotus 1Malaysia Formula One Team.
Japan Open Badminton championship entered its final day today. Bao Chunlai of China walked away with the title in the men's single after demolishing Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia in the final. Chunlai won 21-15, 21-12. The women singles title went to Wang Yihan also of China. She brushed aside teamate, Wang Xin 21-8, 21-9 in the final.
Men’s doubles final title went to Indonesia's Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan wo defeated teamate Yonathan Suryatama Dasuki-Rian Sukmawan 21-19, 24-22 in the final.
China's Ma Jin-Wang Xiaoli took the weomen's double title after a 21-19, 21-18 win over Japan's Miyuki Maeda-Satoko Suetsuna.
Mixed doubles champion was Songphon Anugritayawon-Kulchala Voravichitchaikul of Thailand who demolished Joachim Fischer Nielsen-Christinna Pedersen 13-21, 21-16, 22-20 of Denmark in the final.
Huh...where are the Malaysia players?....all were sent packing as early as the second round and i think the worst outing for the national shuttlers. Time to wake up BAM..

Malaysian slogans

1MALAYSIA
Success yet to be seen. (still very new in the 'market' anyway and now RTM is promoting the slogan very hard with their Salam 1Malaysia at the end of their prime news.(it sound so weird). But why before this RTM news casters never said Salam Malaysia Boleh at the end of their prime news...huh!) Anyway the message of 1MALAYSIA is very clear - to unite various races in the country. Meant that to make this country a very peacefull place to stay. No more robbery at 24 hrs outlet, bank or kedai emas, no more snatch thieves, no more house breaking, no more killing in the street, no more 'merempit' on the highways, no more 'mercun' blown up during festive season ( if no more mercun blown up, that showed our enforcement are doing their job to stop the activity. If there's still sound of mercun in town, meant that our enforcement are not doing their job, not only stop smuggling of mercun plese, but also stop the drug activities as well - the number ONE 'racun' in the country which destroyed the lifestyle of our youngsters.) That the objective of 1MALAYSIA, to teach the rakyat to be well behaved. Get it done to ensure a more disciplined Malaysian. What ever it is, I still hope we still feel proud with our lagu Negaraku.

MALAYSIA BOLEH
I think, this is the best slogan. MALAYSIA BOLEH tell everything. The world recognised us through MALAYSIA BOLEH. We excel in sports, economic and this is the time when Malaysia built the tallest twin building in the world. Malaysia is the only country in the wolrd to have twin building - the tallest twin. MALAYSIA BOLEH also put us in the Formula One map with the establishment of Sepang Circuit (may be i'm wrong), the new high class international airport (KLIA), crossing the English Channel by Datuk Malik Mydin), organisng the Commonwealth Games just to name a few. We also have a well respected leader, Tun Mahathir (a leader i respect most who saved our country from being victimised by IMF. If not, we will suffer now). I think MALAYSIA BOLEH is still the best battle cry for Malaysian to achieve greater success.

CEMERLANG, GEMILANG TERBILANG

I got no idea with this slogan. Nothing much being seen except the rulling party lost few states to opposition. Is it sound CEMERLANG?

A 1Malaysia friend...

YESTERDAY (Saturday) I received a phone call from an old friend. He said: “ Hey Hanz!, is it sound crazy our 1M Formula One team got a yearly budget of RM308 million.” I asked him, from where do you heard the news? He said: “ I read in our local newspaper today. It’s sound crazy isn’t it?. Hmmmm…I replied. I told him, as long as it doesn’t involved rakyat money, then it should be okay. He doesn’t agree with me. He said: “ Why so easy to approve such a big amount of budget for the team? When it comes to bonus for civil servants, the government find it so difficult to approve.” I told him, that none of my business, as long as it doesn’t affect people’s money. I told him that the move may be part of the so called 1Malaysia strategies to sell Malaysia to the top of the world map as well as to strengthen Malaysia's reputation at international scene. He replied: “ Yes I agree, but the amount is too much especially when the economic situation is still in a yo-yo… “
I told that old friend, not to worry much about it. Let wait and see what do we gained from it in the future. I further told him that, if the government find it not worth, they can anytime postponed the project. Before my friend hung up, he told me this: “ I hope the government learned from past mistakes when we involved with Minardi F1 team but in the end we gained nothing. But, I still think that the money should spent wisely for something else because we are not ready yet to compete in F1. We still need foreign expert. Then I told him: “ Just give a try and if not now, we will never have the chance to prove our skills in such a high tech racing competition.

Malaysian sports

1. Football (FAM)
Format of the league gave headache. Keep on changing but the standard still not up to expectation. The no.1 sports in Malaysia played in an empthy stadium..i think the only professional league attended by less than 1,000 spectators. World class stadium throughout the country but not fully utilised to develop the game to world standard. There's news about FAM president to quit. I think he should do so to give way for new blood to lead the association in an effort to bring the standard of Malaysian football to a greater height. Some credit to the sultan for leading FAM but nothing outstanding has been achieved since he held the post, except changing of the league format which gave no different to Malaysian football.

2. Athletic (MAAU)
Only good at SEA Games level. The governing body for this sport create thousands and one kind of internal 'dramas'. Officials attacking each other and there's so many politicking. Nothing extra ordinary been done so far to produce quality athletes who can walk tall at Asian level. They should now find way to produce athletes who can run below 10 second in 100m event.

3. Taekwondo (MTA)
The officials also showed their talent in 'fighting', like the athletes did against their opponent in tournaments. But, if the athlete 'fight' and win, they brought pride to the country. If the official 'fight' it led the association to be punished. In the end the governing body will be barred and the athletes will suffer. How to develop the sports if officials also 'fight' for the sake of personal interest.

4. Sepak takraw (PSM)
Use standard ball please! Otherwise PSM will withdraw from the SEA Games. I taught, the officials who are going to play. Huh..and that what happened during the last SEA Games in Korat. Ball isue led to the withdrawal. The players suffer, they trained throughout the year but missed the boat to Korat due to internal politicking. What's wrong with the ball...its not the officials who are going to play, but the players. Professional players can play with any type of ball and I see no problem with it. I hope this wouldn't happen again at Laos SEA Games end of this year.

5. Hockey (MHF)
Once held the reputation as giant of Asia. Never failed to qualify to Olympic. But now, they seems to struggle to get back to the top. Not a secured place for coaches. If they failed, they will not be given a second chance to prove their worth.  Sacking of coaches seems to be a 'normal game' in PHM. (maybe i'm wrong)...

6. Badminton (BAM)
Not brave enough yet to expose younger players at high level tournament. Depending too much on world No. 1 Datuk Lee Chong Wei to deliver the goods. To date, no back up players yet being produced. Hope to see one or two players stamped their mark at world level before Chong Wei quit.

Chong Wei, don't give up yet

WORLD No. 1 player, Datuk Lee Chong Wei failed at Japan Open Badminton Championship. He lost to Simon Santoso in the second round on Thursday. Not a surprised to me. I don't expect Chong Wei to win. He has been too tired. I'm not siding the Penangites, because the fact is - he has been going thru tough time throughout the year. I think, he don't have enough room to rest and only Chong Wei knew it. He felt the pressure and the result he produced in some of the tournaments tell all. There's so many tournaments for him throughout the year and sometimes he don't have time for recovery. His defeat at Japan Open should be looked seriously by BAM. Chong Wei should be given more time to rest or only sent him to five star tournament. Lower ranked tournament should be given to back-up players who need exposure. We cannot put too much pressure on Chong Wei. Just pick the best tournament for him, I meant five star championship.The Chinese BA did that and Lin Dan also skipped less glamour tournament to ensure he had more time for recovery. I think, that why Lin Dan always produced outstanding performance in most of the tournament he compete, and on top of that, China also had thousand of potential players who can anytime control world badminton. To date, we had yet to see our youngsters can match the Chinese except BAM give them more room for exposure. I think its time for BAM to give more chance to the youngsters as an effort to produce another Lee Chong Wei. Chong Wei already reached his peak and now, his momentum is going down - and no surprised he lost in China recently as well as at Japan Open. So, BAM need to react and for Chong Wei, not the right time to give up.

A reminder to us

Huh...really sad. Our squash queen and world No. 1, Datuk Nicol Ann David crashed out at British Open on Saturday. I think it served as a reminder to us that we need to develop more players of her calibre. We cannot depend on Nicole alone to carry our Jalur Gemilang at high level competition...we need to develop more to ease burden on our squash queen..she has been going all alone to carry Malaysia's proud at world level. I believe if there's two or three more players of her calibre, Nicol will have less burden and she will have more time for recovery. Well SRAM, you all did a good job actually, but we want to see more players like Nicol who can dominate world squash forever....we want only malaysian to be on the top of the world squash. Bare in mind, Nicol will not stay on top forever and we want replacement....

SALAM

Salam sejahtera dan selamat datang....

Inilah gelanggang saya untuk berkongsi idea dengan sesiapa berkenaan apa juga topik yang boleh mengembangkan minda. Untuk makluman, saya lebih berminat dengan topik yang berkaitan sukan dan juga general isues. I don't really like politic...but still keep track on it to equipe myself with the latest happening. anyone dropping by gelanggang ini, you all are most welcome to be part of the team. Cheers and keep blogging..