Unfortunately, two of our national athletes weren't anxious at all - which resulted in some drama when they tried to fly to a tournament.
Forgetful or in denial?
According to New Straits Times, both Khairul Hafiz Jantan and Haiqal Hanafi were stopped from boarding a plane with the Malaysian contingent, who were heading to Almaty in Kazakhstan to compete in the Qosanov Memorial Championships, after they tested positive for COVID-19.
Apparently, Khairul, who is national 100m record holder, and Haiqal, the SEA Games 100m champ, forgot to check their e-mails which informed them about their COVID-19 status.
The duo was reportedly training at the Bandar Penawar Sports School and had arrived in Kuala Lumpur on Sunday (13 June) night, before taking a PCR test the next day.
Thinking nothing was amissed, Khairul and Haiwal joined their fellow athletes and officials on the bus heading towards KLIA at 9pm on Monday (15 June).
Their plane to was reportedly scheduled to take off after midnight to Dubai, before rerouting to Kazakhstan.
As they passed through the security checkpoint, both Khairul and Haiqal were stopped after the security checked their emails for the PCR test, which came out positive.
The duo was barred from boarding the flight, and they were later taken to a special area at the National Sports Council (NSC) building and quarantined for two weeks.
Thankfully, the other eight athletes managed to board the plane, Malaysian Athletics Federation president Datuk S.M. Muthu told the daily.
"Luckily the others were allowed to board the plane after intervention from the NSC and that their records showed COVID-19 negative," he was quoted as saying.
Source of infection
According to NST, the source of the infection was linked back to Haiqal, who lost his grandmother to COVID-19 two weeks ago.Khairul was infected as both he and Haiqal are best friends who trained and travelled together from Johor.
This is what happens when you don't take COVID-19 seriously, you guys. We hope the pair has learnt their lessons.