BIRMINGHAM: The national judo squad wants any success achieved at the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games as a stepping stone to allow the sport to be listed in the podium programme.

National team coach Md Nashriq Md Nassir believes that if judo is listed in the training programme for high-performance athletes, the sport will be able to record more success for the country at the international level.

Therefore, he said, the national camp, which has lined up two representatives at this Games, aims to go all the way to the quarter-finals to give them the merit to apply to the National Sports Council (MSN) for the sport to be included in the Podium Programme.

“If you are in the Podium Programme, the athletes’ training is more organised and they can give full focus in training in preparation for a tournament. Previously, athletes were only gathered when there was a tournament.

“We want judo to developed further for the future,“ he said when met at the athletes’ sports village at the University of Warwick, about half an hour’s drive from the city centre here.

S. Kamini Segaran, 25, and Amir Daniel Abdul Majeed, 18, will each compete in the 57kg women’s and 73kg men’s categories respectively at this Games.

Regarding the target, Md Nashriq said it was realistic given Amir Daniel and Kamini’s first appearance at the second largest sports event in the world.

He added the Birmingham Commonwealth Games was the second tournament his charges are participating in after the SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam last May, following the Covid-19 pandemic.

Kamini, who won a bronze medal at the Hanoi SEA Games, promised to give her best performance although it would not be an easy feat.

“We will try to achieve the target. If we reach the quarter-finals, it can be considered a pretty good achievement,“ she said.

Amir Daniel, who has just started his studies at Penang Matriculation College in Kepala Batas and Kamini, a final year student at Universiti Sains Malaysia (USM), came to Birmingham on the heels of winning bronze medals at the Hanoi SEA Games.

For Amir Daniel, competing in the prestigious games was a valuable experience in continuing his career in the sport that he started when he was five years old.

The judo event is scheduled to take place at the Coventry Arena, Coventry starting Monday (Aug 1). - Bernama

- Source from The Sun