more glitz needed

IT was only fitting for national and world squash queen Nicol Ann David to bag the National Sportswoman Award.

While her father Desmond collected her award and the RM10,000 mock cheque from Yang de-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Mizan Zainal Abidin (pic), she continues her winning streak of 43 unbeaten matches to date after overpowering Egyptian raising star Omneya Abdel Kawy in the on-going Kuwait Open.

Nicol’s win was based on her brilliant performance last year, winning the British Open titles and the gold in the Asian Championships and aided the Malaysian women’s team to finish third in the World Team Championship in Canada.

Bodybuilder and former Mr Universe Sazali Samad was named as the National Sportsman of the year. The 40 year old policeman from Batu Pahat won the bantamweight competition in the World Amatuer Bobybuilding Championships in the Czech Republic and managed the silver in the Asian Games, amidst biased judging.

He also pocketed RM10,000 for his achievement.

While the night was filled with joy, observers felt more could have been done prior in gearing up for the event, dubbed as the Oscars of Malaysian sports which was held at the Juara Stadium in Bukit Kiara last night.

In fact, the media circle was only given a formal invitation via email a day before the event.

Even sadly, this is the first time our new young King is the guest of honour, and what better than a sportsman himself to hand out awards to his fellow athletes. The Terengganu King represents the country in equestrian, one of the very few leaders (eg Perak’s Sultan Azlan Shah) to ever be aggressively involved in sports. Sultan Azlan was awarded the Sports Figure of the year due to his long involvement in hockey.

Instead, the sports fraternity were more interested in the Formula One fiasco, with even miniters who have never shown any interest for the past editions since 1998 filling the Perdana Suite and grandstands over the weekend.

2006 National Awards Roll of Honour
Sportsman: Sazali Samad (bodybuilding)
Sportswoman: Nicol David (squash)
Men’s Team: Bowling- Alex Liew, Aaron Kong, Azidi Ameran, Ben Heng, Daniel Lim and Zulmazran Zulkifli.
Women’s Team: Lawn Bowls- Nur Iryani Azmi, Azlina Arshad, Norhashimah Ismail.
Best Male Paralympic: Faridul Masri (athletics)
Best Female Paralympic: Zainab Mohd Ashari (athletics)
Best Male Coach: Mohd Ariffin Ghani (lawn bowls)
Best Female Coach: Choo Yih Hwa (lawn bowls)
Sports Leadership: Tan Sri Ahmad Sarji Abdul Hamid (lawn bowls); Datuk Thomas Lee (golf)
Sports Figure: Sultan Azlan Shah (hockey)
Special Award: Krishnan Thambusamy (athletics); Yeoh Cheang Swi (rugby); Balwant Singh (triathlon).

Pic coutersy of TheStar online

-The Man Who Sold The World-