Today, the Olympic Council of Malaysia had a special meeting with IKA Vice President Ziyoviddin Khodjiniyazov on International Collaboration and Games at the NOC Headquarters in Kuala Lumpur. Present during the meeting were the General Secretary of OCM, Dato Nazifuddin Najib, the President of the Malaysia Kurash Association, Mr Chew Eng Kian, the General Manager of OCM, Encik Hashimi, and Mrs Susan Cheah, the General Secretary of the Malaysian Kurash Association.
One of the main topics discussed was the inclusion of Kurash as an official sport at the 2027 SEA Games. In 2019, Kurash was introduced for the first time in the program of the SEA Games in Vietnam, and it’s also part of the 2025 SEA Games in Thailand.
The discussions took place in detail as to how to secure our place at the 2027 edition of SEA Games; as Malaysia is the host country, an application will be made in due course from the Malaysian Kurash Association requesting to be part of the games, and with the support of OCM and IKA, hopefully, our goal will be reached.
OCM (Olympic Council of Malaysia) also requested the help of IKA and KCA to train the Kurash athletes and create a program to help them achieve medals at the 2025 SEA Games. Mr Khodjiniyazov promised that upon his return, he would discuss the matter with the President of KCA and let them know the conditions for deploying a coach to Malaysia.
Another topic discussed was the South East Asian Kurash Championships, which were supposed to be held on 18-22 May 2023 in Kuala Lumpur, but since the Asian Senior Kurash Championships will be held in June in Bukhara, Uzbekistan, it was rescheduled to 18-22 July 2024. Mr. Khodjiniyazov mentioned that this is a perfect competition, and you can test the athletes here and start investing in them. He also requested the OCM to support the championship; the Malaysian Kurash Association will consider the OCM Sports Hall and its complex, where they have the facilities for meals and accommodation. Malaysian Kurash Association requested another set of Gilam and more yakhtaks to be provided for use, which will afterwards be passed on to the clubs for the athletes’ Kurash training.
During the meeting, it was mentioned that the Sports Authority of Malaysia wants to move Kurash to be joined with other similar Martial Arts in another federation. Mr Khodjiniyazov mentioned that these are internal matters and that IKA cannot intervene in them, but on personal experience, this can have an advantage because it gives more access to more athletes; the ranked number one athlete can stay with the federation, and the 2nd ranked athlete can join Kurash. There were many cases where athletes obtained more medals in Kurash than the federation that they are a member of, especially witnessed during the last same games.
Mrs Cheah also mentioned the Kurash for the Deaflympic, which everyone was thrilled about. The IKA Vice President asked Mrs Chea to implement her ideas, and it was decided that after the SEA Games project, she would start to introduce the system.
After Ms. Tang Wai Bunn won the best referee award of IKA in 2023, the OCM promised to have two candidates from Malaysia Present at the upcoming KCA Asian Senior Championships in Bukhara, Uzbekistan.
The Olympic Committee of Malaysia was very happy to receive Mr. Khodjiniyazov, who stated that it’s great to see that the International Kurash Association take such close care and attention to its members.
