Time for all out push

DESPITE winning another 18 gold medals yesterday, the national contingent have little room for error in the final two days of competition if they are to achieve their 103 gold target and emerge overall champions of the Kuala Lumpur Asean Para Games (Para KL2017).

Indonesia, who bagged 21 gold yesterday, again extended their lead and now hold a 19 gold advantage over second-placed Malaysia. Defending champions Thailand are a distant third on 44 gold.

There were no surprises as athletics and cycling again delivered the goods for Malaysia, with each sport contributing six gold.

Paralympic gold medallist and reigning World Champion Ziyad Zolkefli rewrote his own games record en route to the shot put F20 gold on a day which saw the athletics squad bringing their tally at Para KL2017 to 29 gold, two more than they won throughout the entire games two year ago.

National cyclists Nur Azlia Syafinaz (B) and Mohd Najib Turano (C4) both won their road race events to bring their personal haul to four gold each, the highest for any Malaysian athlete at Para KL2017 so far.

Powerlifter Jong Yee Khie delivered Malaysia's first gold in the sport at the games after topping the men's under-97kg class while Carmen Lim (S8) clinched the nation’s only gold in swimming in the women's 50m freestyle.

Tenpin bowlers Rizal Hassan, Suhaili Ab Hamid and Hairul Miran (B1/B2/B3) as well as Zahidi Lamsah, Azrin Rahim and Amin Abd Rashid (B8/B9/B10) secured confident victories in their team events.

Abu Samah Borhan and Azman Hasan were just as impressive en route to winning the men's singles and quad singles titles in wheelchair tennis.

Another 74 gold medals will be on offer on the penultimate day of competition today, again with athletics (26) offering the most followed by chess (12), badminton (10), swmming (10) and boccia (7).