The news of Zolkples’ death was shared on the Malaysian athletes’ official Twitter page at 10.23 this morning.
Zolkples held the position of NSC director-general for seven years from 2007.
He was later appointed the Malaysian Sea Games Organising Committee (MASOC) chief executive officer in 2017.
Police said Zolkples died at his home after a heart attack.
Ampang Jaya police chief Mohamad Farouk Eshak said the case has been classified as sudden death. The exact cause of death is still under investigation.
He said police received a call at 8.31am today from Zolkples’ former personal assistant stating that she had been unable to contact him since last night.
He said Zolkples was found alone in his house, adding that the police did not find any evidence of criminal element during their investigation. No trace of a break-in or scuffle was found either.
“He lived alone at home and was never married. According to his family, Zolkples had undergone heart surgery about 10 years ago and had not done further treatment after that,” Farouk said in a statement.
He added that Zolkples did a Covid-19 swab test last Friday and it turned out to be negative.
“His remains will be taken to the Sri Petaling mosque for funeral arrangements and he will be buried in Kampung Sura, Dungun, Terengganu,” he added.
Former youth and sports minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek described Zolkples as a friend and teacher who had taught him a lot about the world of sports.
“He has contributed a lot to the development of national sports, including the development of cycling, in which we have produced many world champions. May his soul be blessed. Condolences to his family and close friends,” he said in a Facebook post.
Zolkples was born in Dungun and graduated from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia (UKM) with a degree in Social Science in 1982.
He began his career with the NSC in 1984 as a sports development officer (athlete’s preparation division) and went on to become its director-general in 2007.
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