A painful trek to the future

Covered a Press conference held by national coach John Beasley at the National Sports Council today, one in which the Australian announced his aspirations to transform the entire cycling programme into one that's worthy of challenging the world.
First off was a course to train and educate coaches manning the 13 centres of excellence and two academies in the country and bring them up to levels which would deem them capable of producing cyclists of caliber within our own shores.
As usual, I was asked by my buddies from the Press to take charge and lead the way with questions, thus it turned a bit heated as well, when I got a lame answer from NSC's head of development Jefri Ngadirin, for my questions of the lack of local competitions to sustain elite riders under track programmes.
The picture above is that of the back-up sprints squad under coach and former national rider Fairoz Izni Abdul Ghani. I had asked Fairoz what his riders were going to do, and again they were at a loss.
Personally, I expect those in the NSC to go and tell the riders and coaches to shut up and not speak to the Press or anybody about these "sensitive" issues, this country having those fickle minds that run our sport.
But back to serious business, Beasley seems like a good bet to drive a serious reform in how we look at development.
With the coaches well equipped to produce riders of calibre and nurture the talent available, all that is needed is competitions. Well, firstly at least. And to this, the NSC answered they had or were supposed to have three... Yes, I repeat, THREE (3).. this year and "if they weren't able to hold it this year, they'll have it next year". I was fuming inside, puzzled and confused.
Of course, the MNCF too relies on the NSC a bit too heavily, so we can continue dreaming.
Come on, you've got the riders and with 13 COEs, two academies, I'd bet there'd be about at least a hundred riders readily available. So, what can they look forward to? Jefri said there'll be international competitions either this year or next year. Or something like that. The fact remains, there aren't any local track races, so the riders just keep on training if they're above the 18-year old age group, before which they have four rounds of the SportExcel National Junior Circuit for track events. Even that, I must say, was initiated by the Foundation for Malaysian Sporting Excellence (SportExcel) three years ago as a supplement to the road circuit, after being advised by us at the New Straits Times.
Self belief was what Beasley said we needed, as has been proven by Azizul Hasni Awang and Rizal Tisin, since they went under his charge two years ago. But I think we need more than that. WE must firstly WANT to do it. We must WANT to push Malaysian cycling to the next level, and collectively at that.
I'd already been surprised when I walked into the room where the coaching course was conducted, shortly before the Press conference began today, when I found all those regular faces which I've grown accustomed to seeing in all our local races. These are the same coaches that are going to run the show. No offence to them, as all of them are my good friends. But we need new blood as well. New, younger coaches and many of them. It takes a bit more time, said Beasley. So, we'll wait for that.
In the meantime, if any of you are keen to watch some exciting keirin racing in our home court at the KL Velodrome, drop by this Saturday. Fairoz's boys and a few other will be in the Keirin Open, a new series launched by buddies just for the love of the sport.
A few of us, yours truly included, are chipping in. You can too. They'll pass the hat around to collect any amount you wish to donate. That will be the prizemoney.
Fairoz was having a hard time trying to kick the thing off. There was no support from those supposed to be helping it. So, a few friends came in handy for for him.
I think it will be a good thing if Fairoz really gets it started. Let's go help them out, however we can. Just show up at the velodrome at about 10pm Saturday night. Seriously.