GUANGZHOU, Nov 27 (Bernama) -- The success of the Malaysian contingent in achieving its nine-gold target at the 16th edition of the Asian Games here has met the key performance indicator (KPI) target set by the Youth and Sports Ministry, said Datuk Zolkples Embong, Malaysia's chef-de-mission to Games.He said the assessment for National Key Result Areas (NKRA) for the ministry was also translated through the contingent's best achievement in bagging the highest number of gold medals since competing in the games in the Melbourne edition in 1956.
"The KPI, NKRA set by the ministry for the National Sports Council (NSC) were met in Guangzhou when the national contingent achieved the nine-gold target," he told a press conference after the conclusion of competition at the Guongzhou Asian Games, which began on Nov 12, on Saturday.
After 15 days of competition, the Malaysian contingent also improved its position in the medal collection among the 45 countries competing here when it settled in the 10th place in the overall standings compared to 11th place in Doha, four years ago.
Malaysia bagged nine gold, 18 silver and 14 bronze here as compared to eight gold, 17 silver and 17 bronze in Doha.
Zolkples said of the 28 types of sports contested by Malaysian athletes, the target of nine gold and 14 bronze fulfilled 100 per cent of the contingent's expectation while the 18 silver exceeded expectations, at 105.8 per cent.
"The target was not set after Malaysia had bagged all the medals, but were set several months before we even got here, based on certain factors like the current performance of the athletes and their rivals here," he said.
Zolkples, who is also NSC director-general, said the contingent was actually capable of winning more than nine gold medals but some potential athletes failed to clinch the gold in the finals.
He said national badminton doubles pair, Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong, for example, failed to defend the gold medal they won in Doha and had to settle for silver while in squash, the national men's team also missed the gold medal when they lost to Pakistan.
He also categorised the sports contested by Malaysia according to their level of performance.
The sports categorised as outstanding performance were bowling with two gold medals, track cycling (one), karate (two) squash (three) and wushu (one).
In the excellent performance category were diving (four silver, five bronze), men's hockey (silver), badminton (two silver) and equestrian (one silver, two bronze).
Sepaktakraw (two silver), billiards (one silver) sailing (three silver, one bronze), shooting (one bronze), women's beach volleyball (one bronze), soccer and rugby came under the satisfactory category.
Zolkples said there were also sports that did not achieve their expected performance like athletics, archery, women's hockey and boxing.
"There are also some sports that our athletes should not have contested at the Asian Games like fencing, golf, cricket and chess, including Chinese chess.
"These kinds of sports should be contested at other tournaments, not at the world's second largest games after the Olympics," he said.
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