NSC READY TO MEET ATHLETES, MA TO RESOLVE BOYCOTT ISSUE

KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 (Bernama) -- The National Sports Council (NSC) will hold a meeting with athletes and Malaysian Athletics (MA) next week on the issue of athletes boycotting training under Malaysian Athletics Technical Director Robert Ballard.

NSC director-general Jefri Ngadirin said he hoped to get more detailed information on the latest crisis in the country's athletics camp during the meeting.

He said the NSC had indeed become aware of the issue after holding a meeting with the MA leadership regarding their request to appoint six new coaches recently.

"When we sit at the table with them (athletes and MA) I think we will get a clearer information as to why they decided to boycott the training programme by Robert Ballard. So, if we sit at the table openly, I think the issue can be resolved immediately," he said at a press conference here today.

Yesterday, the media reported that several sprinters had decided to boycott Ballard's training programme over the past month and received threats of expulsion from the programme if they expressed dissatisfaction with the Australian's management.

Meanwhile, Jefri said Ballard's contract will expire this June and the NSC can conduct an assessment including the key performance index set for him so far.

"Ballard's contract is with MA even though the funding comes from the NSC. When the MA wants to extend his contract, they will come back to the NSC to negotiate and then we will see what the next action is," he said.

At the same time, he said they were still waiting for the resumes of six coaches, including three local coaches and three foreign coaches, from the MA.

Last week, Jefri said in a statement that the six new coaches would include coaching aspects for the disciplines of sprints, throws and jumps.

-- BERNAMA