Gold drought continues
THE national karate exponents added two more bronze medals to their tally at the Asian Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan yesterday as Malaysia’s gold medal drought was extended to five years.
The men’s and women’s kata teams each won bronze medals to end the country’s campaign at two-day senior level tournament with six bronze.
The national cadet, junior and Under-21 exponents collectively won five silver and three bronze medals earlier in the week.
Malaysia have not won a gold medal at the senior level since 2012, when Leong Tze Wai emerged men’s individual kata champion, despite possessing Asian Games gold medallists in Lim Chee Wei and Syakilla Salni Jefry Krishnan.
The women’s kata team of Celine Lee, Charlene Cheung and Ariana Lim reached the semi-finals where they lost to world powerhouse Japan 5-0 before recovering to beat Hong Kong 5-0 for the bronze medal.
Thomson Hoe, Emmanuel Leong and Chee Wei led the men’s kata team to the bronze medal with a 5-0 win over Hong Kong having lost 5-0 to Japan in the quarter-finals.
The men’s kumite team started well with a 3-2 win over Thailand but went down 3-1 to Kazakhstan in the quarterfinals.
Iran beat the women’s kumite team 2-1 in the first round before Vietnam defeated Malaysia 2-0 in the repechage round.
Malaysia won three bronze medals in the individual events on Saturday through Celine, Syakilla, Chee Wei and R. Sharmendran.
The national exponents won a silver and five bronze medals in the 2015 edition, when the men’s kata team reached the final, and just two bronze in 2013.
The tournament was the national exponents’ final competition before the Kuala Lumpur Sea Games next month.