KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 19 — The National Sports Council (NSC) will hold an Asian Games Performance Review Workshop with relevant stakeholders on November 8, as part of preparations for upcoming international games.

Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh said the workshop will also involve experts from Nippon Sport Science University.

"The same post-mortem workshop was held for the (2023) Cambodia SEA Games as well, to improve its existing programme,” she said during the Minister’s question time at today’s Dewan Rakyat session.

Hannah was replying to Khoo Poay Tiong (PH-Kota Melaka) who wanted to know the achievements of Malaysian athletes in the recent 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, as well as the Ministry of Youth and Sports’ plan for athletes preparation and sports development for upcoming international sports.

She said all of the country’s athletes had shown exceptional performance at the Hangzhou Asian Games in their events and that success was achieved as a result of prior preparations.

She said at the Hangzhou Games, the Malaysian contingent of 288 athletes had successfully won six gold medals, eight silver medals and 18 bronze medals.

"The total tally of 32 medals achieved the target set by the NSC and the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM),” she said.

Regarding the winnability of the athletes at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games, Hannah concluded that among other factors, the success could be attributed to prior competition exposure and training, thanks to allocations from the NSC involving an expenditure of RM9.4 million.

It covered 119 competition exposures abroad and 41 training exposures that were given to athletes, she added.

"Sports matching grants also played a role when we view karate especially, where competitions for this sport organised in Malaysia helped them elevate their calibre for the Asian Games.

"Finally, I give this factor of the winning psyche, to the athletes, because the athletes themselves recognise their own abilities ... they become medal winners because they win in their minds first before they enter the court,” she said, adding that the cooperation of sports associations is also a major factor for the athletes’ victory at the Hangzhou Games. — Bernama