Fresh from last year's success at the Asian Para Games, the Malaysian paralympic contingent has its sights set on another target this year - qualifying for the 2012 London Paralympic Games. ROZANNA LATIFF reports.

MALAYSIAN paralympic athletes have always been overshadowed by their able-bodied counterparts despite becoming world-beaters.

After bringing home 45 medals, including nine gold at the Guangzhou Asian Para Games last year, the country's paralympic athletes are sending a clear message -- they are primed for the spotlight and ready to compete alongside the best in the world.

National Sports Council Paralympic branch director Mohd Safrushahar Yusoff said training and preparations for the 2012 London Paralympic Games qualifications were under way for the 62 disabled athletes under the council's elite athletes' programme.

"Qualifying for London is the immediate goal for all athletes this year.

"Our best chances for qualifying are in six core sports -- athletics, swimming, archery, weightlifting, table tennis and sailing.

"But we are also looking at other sports such as fencing, cycling and boccia."

Safrushahar said paralympic sports had developed considerably under the programme aimed at strengthening sports infrastructure for the disabled or physically challenged.

"Para-athletes are treated equally as able-bodied athletes in terms of income, allowances, access to coaches and facilities and training opportunities," he added.

The programme, initiated in 2007, has since yielded notable results with the Malaysian contingent consistently surpassing their targets at major sports events.

They bagged 82 and 94 gold medals at the 2008 and 2009 Asean Para Games -- more than the expected 80 and 90 medals -- and one bronze at the 2008 Beijing Paralympic Games, Malaysia's first medal in 16 years.

Significant milestones were also achieved in sports such as wheelchair archery, with Muhamad Salam Sidik becoming world champion in 2009, and the contingent of lawn bowlers bagging two gold, one silver and one bronze at the 2009 World Blind Bowls Championship in Melbourne, Australia.

"What's left now is securing more public support, as well as developing new talent."

In the long term, Safrushahar said, the council was identifying young, potentially elite, para-athletes at the state level through collaborations with state education, welfare, health and youth and sports departments.

"We're not just looking at those who have been disabled since birth but also the newly disabled, such as recent amputees and paraplegics who may find it difficult to readjust to life with a disability.

"We want to develop paralympic sports into a viable career for the disabled, something that can bring in income and improve their quality of life."

National Sports Institute director-general Datuk Dr Ramlan Abdul Aziz, who headed the Malaysian contingent to Guangzhou, said the programme provided an opportunity to improve sports science and training methods.

"Training the disabled comes with its own set of challenges as each person is affected differently by their disability, and some disabilities are more severe than others."

"The challenges also change as the athletes improve -- for example, those with cerebral palsy may find themselves competing in different categories as their muscles are strengthened, which means that their physiotherapy, training and preparation also needs to be readjusted. "It's a complex but fascinating process."

Dr Ramlan said the institute, working with the NSC on coaching and health services, was also looking at sports as a rehabilitation tool to help the newly disabled and to identify untapped talent.

Ultimately, he said, the goal was to provide hope, not just to para-athletes, but to the disabled community in general.

"Sports changes one's life and makes you not just physically but mentally stronger. It's there to give hope to the disabled and to give them a better and more exciting life."