The Malaysian Volleyball Association (MAVA) has left no stones unturned as they set their sights on a medal in the KL2017 Games after last making it to the podium more than 15 years ago.

Joseph Gerard, the MAVA secretary general, said the President – Dr Sui Cheng Hii – had urged the men’s national team to pursue their long awaited medal.

“We’re looking forward to a medal after so long as the last medal won by the men’s team was a silver in 2001 when Malaysia hosted the 21st SEA Games edition,” said Joseph.

“The president has also committed to award the team in terms of cash reward if they win a medal as to encourage the players.

“We’re quite confident that the boys will get a medal but we can’t tell what colour it is.”

After the pre-SEA Games event at the MBSA hall from 19-23 July, the team will be flying off to Taiwan for training and a few friendly matches comprising of club sides and university teams on the 24 July – 3 August.

Prior to that , Malaysia also featured at the Asian U23 Championship in Iran from 1-9 May.

In the meantime, the volleyball event at the SEA Games will be held at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC.

“We cannot utilise the hall at MITEC yet as there were certain things which we need to finalised,” added Joseph.

“We needed to drill the holes to put the posts and at the moment we’re solving this first. We will have the place ready before the actual Games.

“Basically it’s a bare hall and we have to partition the rooms as the space is limited. We hope that we can at least have a seating capacity of at least 1,000.” – BY ALVIN OH

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