Sabah karatekas bag three gold

Sabah karatekas showed their prowess with three gold at the recent 38th Malaysia Karate Federa on (MAKAF) Na onal Senior Karate Championship that ended in Kulim, Kedah.

KOTA KINABALU: Sabah karatekas showed their prowess with three gold at the recent 38th Malaysia Karate Federation (MAKAF) National Senior Karate Championship that ended in Kulim, Kedah.

The state squad also bagged one silver and seven bronze medals to finish in third place overall in the recently concluded two-day championship at the Kulim Hi-Tech Park Sports Complex.

The total haul also saw them bettered their last year's tally of two gold, two silver and four bronze medals.

As expected, Sabah national karateka Pressy Misty Philip justified her favourite tag by retaining the gold in the women's Kumite-68kg category.

Audrey Jaypus added the second gold from the women's Kumite +68kg while Mohd Azreen Ag Hashim finished top in the men's Kumite-67kg competition.

Meanwhile Juslin Juman, Nur Ayeen Terance and Elyanna Chrisma Jupin contributed the team's only silver medal from the women's Team Kata event.

Seven bronze medals were collected from Vellcarollyne Augustine (women's Individual Kata), Clevia Demius (women's Individual Kata), Lejianah Yantoni (women's Kumite 68kg), Stanley Dulian (men's Kumite -55kg), Richal Mattan (men's Kimute -55kg), the men's Team Kata ((Jasvin Jase, Mohd Azad Haziq Henry, Clevelence Carlos) and the men's Team Kumite (Mohd Syarifullah Abdullah, Ar Nickazmie Ahmad, Roney Roger Sining, Arthuric Gideon).

Julian Chin, the chief of delegate of Sabah, was happy with the medals haul but was quick to point out that Sabah Karate cannot get carried away by its latest successful achievement in a national competition.

“We achieved better than last year and at the moment, we are happy with the result.

“However, we have identified weaknesses in our training programme and weaknesses of the individual athletes, which we will have to work on.

“We need to do more development while improving and educating our coaches too,” Julian, who is also Sabah Karate Association (SKA) secretary general and coach, texted yesterday.

For the record, SKA sent 11 men and 11 women exponents to the championship where the team manager is Dominic Yassin, who is also one of the three coaches accompanying the squad with Danny Fredoline and Farlin Frederick.

The SKA also have three officials officiating at the championship as referees namely Julian, Johnny Chong and Alex Lim.

— Bernama photo Acting national chief coach, Zhang Yukun (second left) with his charges (from left) Pandelela Rinong Anak Pang, Leong Mun Yee and Nur Dhabitah Sabri at a Podium Programme media conference at ISN yesterday.

GOLD WINNERS: (From right) Pressy, Mohd Azreen and Audrey deliver gold for Sabah in the 38th MAKAF National Senior Karate Championship in Kedah over the weekend.

BETTER RESULTS:The state karate squad with Julian (centre, back) at the end of the 38th MAKAF National Senior Karate Championship in Kedah over the weekend.