The government has finally relented and given some leeway to the Ministry of Youth and Sports to begin training from June 1 under the much-awaited Road to Tokyo (RTT) program at three venues.
Senior Minister(Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, in his daily media conference that was telecast live on Tuesday, announced the good news.
However in the same breath Ismail, who is also the Defense Minister, said the nod from the Health Ministry and the National Security Council came with strict Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) which have to be observed by the athletes and the officials.
So far the RTT 2020 training program involves 57 athletes and 265 other individuals like coaches, physiotherapists, dieticians, cooks, and other support staff.
According to Ismail, the training sessions would be conducted at three centralized training camps – the Bukit Jalil Sports Complex, Academy Badminton Malaysia in Bukit Kiara, and the National Sailing Training Centre in Langkawi.
COVID-19 screening will be conducted during registration and the quarantine based approach will be taken for the month-long stay at the respective training centers – which means two incubation periods of two weeks each.
The quarantine period will be strictly enforced and monitored by a monitoring committee chaired by the Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican. – BY RIZAL ABDULLAH
