Ahmad Jais sets sights on youth development after Asiad success

NAGOYA: Winning one gold and one silver medal at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games has not left national men's sepak takraw head coach Ahmad Jais Baharun resting on his laurels.

Instead, Ahmad Jais is already looking ahead as he seeks to ensure Malaysia remain competitive on the international stage.

His main priority is to strengthen the country's youth development programme and produce quality replacements for experienced players such as tekong Syahir Rosdi, feeder Farhan Adam and killer Azlan Alias.

Ahmad Jais said Malaysia must keep pace with the development of their Asian rivals by giving promising young players more opportunities at international level.

"If we look at Indonesia's team, many of their players are young and have plenty of potential, and they have been brave enough to give them opportunities," he said.

"We need to keep pace with current developments so that we do not fall behind in giving our young players opportunities to compete internationally.

"Perhaps one day they will take over from Farhan and Syahir in the national team, so we need to start preparing them early.

"I want to see more promising young players coming through the national development programme."

Ahmad Jais also hopes Malaysia's success in Aichi-Nagoya will encourage more corporate sponsors to support sepak takraw's development.

"This achievement will certainly provide another boost for sepak takraw in the country," he said.

"We hope more corporate companies will come forward to sponsor sepak takraw teams so that we can take the sport to the highest level."

At the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games, Malaysia ended a 36-year wait for the men's team regu gold after beating Thailand 2-0 in the final at the Nagoya City Mizuho Arena last Friday.

Malaysia last won the team regu title at the 1990 Beijing Asian Games, when they also defeated Thailand in the final.

However, Malaysia's hopes of completing a golden double were dashed after a 2-0 defeat to Thailand in the inter-regu final on Tuesday.