SEA GAMES 2025: TOUGH CHALLENGES AHEAD FOR NATIONAL ATHLETICS TEAM IN THAILAND - NORASEELA

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 (Bernama) --The national athletics squad is expected to face tough challenges in their effort to bring home more gold medals at the 2025 SEA Games, scheduled to take place from Dec 9 to 20 in Thailand.

Former national 400-metre hurdler, Noraseela Mohd Khalid, said she found it difficult to predict the number of medals the country would bring home, given that Thailand was expected to use the advantage of being the host to dominate athletics at the biennial event.

"It’s going to be tough because we are still relying on athletes based overseas, such as the country's 100m representative Muhammad Azeem Mohd Fahmi and 400m female athlete Shereen Samson Vallabouy.

"However, take Muhammad Azeem as an example. He needs to work even harder to win gold because he is expected to face Puripol Boonson, who qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympic semi-finals," she told Bernama after the opening ceremony of the Inclusive Leadership Programme (iLEAP) Kuala Lumpur (KL) 2024 today.

Muhammad Azeem's debut at the 2024 Olympics ended in the first round, finishing last with a time of 10.45 seconds, while Boonson was the only Southeast Asian athlete to reach the semi-finals in the blue riband event.

In addition to Muhammad Azeem and Shereen, Noraseela does not rule out the possibility that those who contributed silver and bronze medals at the 2023 SEA Games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia, particularly in the field events, could shine at the 2025 SEA Games.

Meanwhile, the 2006 Asian Games bronze medallist noted that Malaysia's performance in athletics at the SEA Games had been declining, as the last time Malaysia brought home more than 10 gold medals was in the 1999 edition in Brunei, with a total of 12 golds.

Since the 1999 edition, the best performance by the national athletics team was winning eight gold medals when Malaysia hosted the SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur in 2017. After that, the team could only secure five gold medals for three consecutive editions (2019, 2021, and 2023).

As a result, she said that the Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) should to take responsibility by planning strategies and making smarter decisions to improve the national athletics team's performance, not only at the SEA Games but also in high-level competitions and events, including the Olympics.

A four-time SEA Games gold medallist, she also stressed that MAF should focus on exposing athletes to more international competitions so that they could assess their performance against athletes from other countries.

Meanwhile, Noraseela, who is one of the advisors for iLEAP, shared that the eighth edition of the programme had received an encouraging response, with 36 participants, including two from Singapore, this time.

iLEAP KL 2024, organised by the Malaysian Olympism in Action Society and supported by the International Olympic Committee, is a leadership programme that brings together young athletes, including those with disabilities, to explore their potential, embrace diversity, and develop the skills they possess in their respective lives.

-- BERNAMA