SEPANG, Aug 14 — Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh apologised to all Malaysians today after the national contingent failed to bring back the country’s first gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France.

She said the Road To Gold (RTG) programme was not a failure, but has yet to succeed as it was a long term plan implemented for two Olympic Games, Paris 2024 and Los Angeles 2028.

"So we haven’t succeeded yet to win the first gold medal and as I said our stakeholders in RTG are athletes and coaches as this (RTG) is the ‘top service’ for them to boost their chances in winning the gold medal,” she said at a media conference after arriving with the cycling squad at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) today.

Hannah, who is also the RTG co-chairman, said that the programme had boosted the performance of several athletes, with three athletes - cyclists Datuk Mohd Azizulhasni Awang and Nurul Izzah Izzati Mohd Asri, and weightlifter Mohamad Aniq Kasdan - breaking national records at the Olympics, while several others setting new personal bests.

She added that the RTG committee will meet and receive technical reports from all teams to assess the performance and to prepare an audited report on the programmes expenditure.

She added that they would require some time to do so due to the 2024 Malaysia Games (SUKMA) amd the 2024 Paris Paralympic Games that begins on Aug 28.

Malaysia won two bronze medals at the recently concluded Paris Olympics through national men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Sik and national men’s singles champion Lee Zii Jia. — Bernama