KUALA LUMPUR, July 14 ― The Selection Committee of the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) has relaxed the selection criteria for the Hangzhou Asian Games in China by allowing Category B2 to compete, giving more than 300 national athletes the opportunity to participate in the games.

Committee chairman Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria said that initially, only 222 athletes met the selection criteria for the games scheduled from September 23-October 8 after OCM had set stricter conditions.

Previously, it only included 118 athletes for Category A (costs fully covered), which equates to the top four positions at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games, and 104 athletes for Category B1 (costs are reimbursed if they win a medal) for those whose performances would have placed them fifth or sixth in the 2018 edition.

However, Mohamad Norza said after examining appeals from several sports involving 83 athletes, OCM agreed to allow 79 athletes to represent the country in Category B2 if they equalled the seventh or eighth position in the last edition, thus increasing the final total to 301 people.

However, the exact size of the national contingent will only be finalised tomorrow after taking into account the latest results of the Asian Athletics Championships in Bangkok, the World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka and the Chia Woh Trophy Shooting Championships in Subang.

"Athletes under Category B2 participate in the Asian Games on their own sponsorship and are not targeted to win medals.

"However, OCM is of the view that the athletes selected under Categories B1 and B2 need to show their best performance by at least qualifying for the semi-finals in their respective events,” he said in a statement today.

Mohamad Norza explained that the size of the contingent this time also increased due to bigger participation in team events, which involve 43 per cent or 130 of the 301 athletes.

"The number of team sports for participation has risen from three sports in Doha 2006 to seven sports this time.

"OCM has tightened the qualification requirements from at least eighth place in the last edition to be used as the basis for selecting the national contingent to the Hangzhou Asian Games, compared to the selection for the 2018 Asian Games which used the 16th place criterion of the 2014 Incheon Asian Games,” he said.

The seven team sports are basketball (eight athletes), men’s hockey (18 athletes) and men’s sepak takraw (12 athletes) which are in Category A; women’s hockey (18 athletes), kabbadi (12 athletes), traditional boat race (dragon boat race) (14 rowers), rugby (12) and women’s sepak takraw (six) who qualify for category B1.

Cricket, with 30 players, is the only team sport in Category B2.

In the 2018 edition, Malaysia, represented by 417 athletes, brought home seven gold, 13 silver and 16 bronze medals to maintain overall 14th position, while the 277 athletes who represented the country in the 2014 edition grabbed 5-14-14. ― Bernama