Fan favourite Farah Ann defends floor exercise gold
KUALA LUMPUR: There was a thunderous applause when national artistic gymnast Farah Ann Abdul Hadi, a crowd favourite, won a gold medal at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre here yesterday.
The 23-year old successfully defended her SEA Games gold with 13.450 points in the women’s individual floor exercise, defeating Kaitlin Cera Lianne De La Cruz De Guzman from the Philippines (13.025 points) and Indonesian Rifda Irfanaluthfi who scored 13.000 points.
Meanwhile, another gymnast Tan Ing Yueh clinched silver in the women’s individual balance beam with 13.100 points after a protest by Indonesia, who secured gold through Rifda with 13.125 points while Kaitlin settled for bronze with 12.300 points.
In the men’s event, Jeremiah Loo Phay Xing clinched bronze after recording 13.000 points in the high bar while Dinh Phuong Thanh from Vietnam garnered 13.050 points for the silver and Le Thanh Tung, also from Vietnam, was awarded gold with 13.350 points.
When met by reporters after the prize giving ceremony, Farah Ann said she had redeemed herself in a way after a slip up in the uneven bars on Tuesday.
“Obviously I wanted to get a medal yesterday but unfortunately I fell...I’ve learnt that there was no point in being sad because that’s the nature of sports. I just wanted to go out there and do my best and that was what I did today,” she said.
The seasoned gymnast added that she will be focusing on the Gymnastics World Championships next but for now, she just wants to take a short vacation.
“I have asked my sister to buy me a chocolate cake, a white chocolate macadamia cake and a New York cheesecake today, so I’m going to have that first,” she said.
On her teammate’s contested result, Farah Ann said it was very unfortunate that Ing Yueh had to go through such a predicament.
“But in my heart, I know that she is a champion no matter what the score says,” she said.
For women’s coach Ng Shu Wai, he was initially ecstatic after watching Ing Yueh’s excellent performance at the balance beam but felt sad and disappointed when she had to settle for second best.
“However, I am very happy with my girls’ performance because they had achieved more than our target of only one gold medal in the women’s event,” he said.
The artistic gymnastics competition ended its campaign in KL2017 yesterday with five gold medals, four silvers, and two bronzes from both the men’s and women’s squad. – Bernama