IMAGINE this – a new Malaysian Athletics (MA), led not by politicians or power brokers, but by former athletes who once shed blood, sweat and tears to fight for the Jalur Gemilang on the track.

INDIA were minnows and France barely a footnote when Malaysia last lifted the Thomas Cup in 1992. Thirty-four years on, the landscape has flipped.

IT was 2013. And a young upstart of a shuttler was hosting the media at his house in Odense, Denmark.

WHEN Lionel Messi started playing football, he was called the "Little Flea".

WHEN Goh Liu Ying was playing competitive badminton, life was far from a bed of roses.

For most, that would be the death knell for any sporting ambition. Not Cheah Liek Hou.

THERE was a time when bumping into Yeoh Kay Bin or Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif at the training courts meant you would be greeted with a smile, maybe a quick joke, and always a sense of humility.

JANUARY came and went in a flash – not quite as fast as Jamaican Usain Bolt but close enough to make you realise you hardly had time to blink.

IN badminton, the shuttlecock is often called a bird. At the Indian Open, several shuttlers had birds on their minds – but it was not the shuttlecock.

THE long-awaited badminton title still would not return home this time at the Axiata Arena.

DID we do better than Singapore? Did we do better than Singapore?

FORMER international swimmer Nurul Huda Abdullah is not an ordinary chef de mission for the Malaysian SEA Games contingent.