The national sailing squad, which arrived in Jakarta to compete in the SEA Games in Indonesia on Sunday, are disappointed that the organisers did not provide accommodation as promised earlier.
Team manager for the national sailing squad, Mohd Afendy Abdullah said he and 17 national sailors had to look for their own accommodation and forked out their own money to pay for the cost until Nov 11.
“Previously, I was informed that food and accommodation were being provided by the organisers.
“According to the terms for the organisers, accommodation is provided on Wednesday, but the sailing squad arrived early and we had agreed to pay additional fee for accommodation for three days,” he said when contacted by Bernama today.
Mohd Afendy said he was also disappointed that the organisers again did not fulfill their promise when they said that accommodation for the sailing squad would only be provided on Nov 11 without official guarantee.
“For the comfort of the sailors, I have booked accommodation at the Puteri Duyung Resort, Ancol Jakarta until Nov 11 at my own expense because the team manager is not given any allocation.
“The athletes’ welfare is always a priority with me,” he said. Mohd Afendy, who is also the General Manager of the Malaysian Yachting Association, hoped that those responsible for managing accommodation and the requirements of athletes when participating in competitions abroad would be more careful in future because any weakness in this aspect would affect the athletes’ performance.
He said he would apply to the Olympic Council of Malaysia to make a protest to the organisers concerning the problem to ensure that athletes in the other sports would not face the same problem.
The national sailing squad earlier targeted to bring back at least two gold medals from the biennial games to redeem their disappointment in the last edition of the games in Laos two years ago where they only won one gold medal.
– Bernama
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