Coach confident of gold

national lawn bowls team are confident of winning a gold medal at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

They have been contributing medals consistently at the games, but their last title was achieved at the 2006 Melbourne edition.

The team have been in Australia for centralised training for the last one month to prepare for the upcoming mission.

Malaysia coach Dr Simon Botha have named a strong team comprising five men and five women. “We have a chance of a gold in three or four events. I think we can win something in the men’s pairs and women’s fours. “But it is unpredictable in lawn bowls. A bowler needs to be in top form to finish on the podium.

“Every country competing in the Gold Coast have targets, but we will try our best to achieve ours,” said Botha.

In the 2014 Glasgow edition, Malaysia won silver in the men’s pairs (Hizlee Abdul Rais-Fairul Izwan Abdul Muin) and women’s fours (Emma Firyana Saroji, Nur Fidrah Noh, Nor Hashimah Ismail and Azlina Arshad).

For the record, Malaysia have won a total of three gold, four silver and eight bronze medals at the Commonwealth Games.

Siti Zalina Ahmad is the country’s most successful athlete in the sport with two gold in women’s singles at the 2002 Manchester and 2006 Melbourne editions.

The other title was contributed by Azlina Arshad, Nor Iryani Azmi and Nor Hashimah Ismail in the women’s triples in 2006.