Friday February 4, 2005

Malaysia to get Jamaican athletics coaches

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia have agreed to send coaches to Jamaica from next month under an exchange programme.

Jamaica have made requests for netball, badminton and hockey coaches and in return, they will send their athletics coaches to Malaysia.

Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Azalina Othman Said, who returned from a trip to Cuba and Jamaica earlier this week, said that officials from both countries would meet in the first week of March to sign a memorandum of understanding on the exchange programme.

“We are happy that the Jamaicans are willing to share their athletics expertise with us. They need coaches in other sports and we will work out the details when their officials visit us in March. But in principle I have agreed to the exchange programme,” she said.

Azalina said this after the soft launch of the Malaysian Today newspaper here yesterday.

“I welcome any newspaper which can highlight sports in the country. The government is serious about sports and has agreed to allow the ministries to buy space in the papers to take their message to the public,” she said.

Malaysia Today is a sports newspaper, which will be published twice a week – on Tuesday and Friday.

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Malaysia to get Jamaican athletics coaches