Puvaneswaran dreams of Malaysia's first Olympic gold medal

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 27 (Bernama) – Former national karate coach, R. Puvaneswaran expressed his desire to return to train the national squad to realise Malaysia's dream of winning the Olympic gold medal in Tokyo in 2020.

Currently serving with the Thai team, Puvaneswaran said that the desire and enthusiasm to return and serve Malaysia was always there, despite getting a more lucrative deal with Thailand.

The winner of two Asian Games gold medals said his return to the national camp could cure the ‘wound’ he had from not being able to win a medal at the Olympic stage, as the combat sport would only be contested for the first time in the world's largest sports event in 2020.

"If the Karate Federation of Malaysia calls me, I will definitely return here because I am always waiting to serve the country. Malaysia has given me a lot when I was an athletes, so I am always open to give back to the country.

"Karate has a good chance of winning the first gold medal in the Olympics. We did not have the opportunity to participate in the Olympics, but as former athletes, we can help the present athletes to achieve the highest level of success.

"Indeed, Thailand wants to continue my contract until the end of next year, but I am willing to reject the offer for Malaysia’s sake. I want to share my experience and knowledge with national athletes, " he told Bernama after being a guest on the Bernama Today programme on the Bernama News Channel at Wisma Bernama today.

Puvaneswaran, who joined Thailand last year, helped the team to win a gold, five silver and five bronze medals at the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games, the country's karate squad’s best performance, as well as a bronze at the recent Asian Games.

His decision to help the national squad was at the right time, after it failed to provide the impact targeted at the Asian Games, where the event usually contributed two gold medals, but only winning a bronze medal.

On the dismal performance of the squad at the Asian Games in Jakarta-Palembang, the gold medalist in the 2002 and 2010 editions, said it was due to the overwhelming dependence on only a handful of senior athletes.

"Right now we have five or six senior athletes only, we just depend on them ... In the past, we had 15 senior athletes, namely, two or three athletes to a category who always fought for a place to perform at the highest level such as the Asian Games, while the second and third best athletes competed in the lower level tournaments,’’ he added.

-- BERNAMA