No Automatic Qualification for Commonwealth Games

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 8 (Bernama) -- The Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) has set an early target of no automatic qualification for athletes to compete in the Commonwealth Games, next year. Its president Tunku Imran Tuanku Jaafar said in the measurable sports at least, the athletes should at least achieve the sixth place in the last Commonwealth Games. He said the first selection committee meeting for the Commonwealth Games would be held on Oct 3. "The Commonwealth Games Federation gives us a quota and we will work within that quota. We will need to look very careful at who will be chosen to go and who is the very best to go. "We will have views from MSN, ISN, national sports associations, and acknowledgement from the SEA Games performance," he told reporters after chairing the OCM Executive Board Meeting, here, Thursday. The Commonwealth Games will be held in Gold Coast, Australia from April 4 to 15, next year. Tunku Imran also noted that the Queen's baton relay for the Commonwealth Games would be held in Malaysia from Oct 16 to 21. "We will be announcing the programme later," he added. Meanwhile, Tunku Imran said the test results of 836 doping samples of medallists at the KL SEA Games would be completed by the middle of this month. He said 345 samples had been tested and one positive case found. However, it did not involve a Malaysian athlete. "When everything is ready including the laboratory reports, we will announce the complete outcome," he said. -- BERNAMA