News-in-brief of 2018 Asian Games

JAKARTA: The following are news-inbrief on the first day of the 2018 Asian Games Jakarta-Palembang in Indonesia yesterday:

ROWING National representative, Muhammad Khairuddin Azwi failed to give his best performance to end in 11th place out of 12 participants in the men’s single sculls event.

He recorded a time of nine minutes 17.55 seconds in the event at the Jakabaring Sports Complex Lake in Palembang.

KABBADI Malaysia was shamed by a big 1762 loss to two silver medals winner, Pakistan at the opening action of the B group at Garuda Theatre, Jakarta.

The national squad is scheduled to face Japan at the second match of the B group at the same venue today.

HANDBALL The national women’s handball squad suffered its second consecutive defeat after losing 3-64 to three silver medals winner, Japan at the second action of B group at GOR Popki Cibubur, Jakarta.

Malaysia, which lost 15-23 to Indonesia in the opening action on Aug 14, would continue its B group action against Thailand on Tuesday.

FENCING The national fencing squad showcased a lackadaisical performance after two national representatives failed to get past the preliminary round at Cenderawasih Hall, Jakarta Convention Centre yesterday.

However, the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games bronze medalist, Joshua Koh I Jie, whom the country was banking on, gave a fierce fight before losing 10-15 to Japan’s Minobe Kazuyasu in the third round.

Another national representative, Mohamad Roslan Mohamed lost 9-15 to Kazakhstan’s athlete, Ruslan Kurbanov in the second round.

WUSHU National wushu athlete, Tan Cheong Min would have the opportunity of presenting a medal to Malaysia on the second day of the 2018 Asian Games, today after winning second place in the women’s Nanquan event.

The 19-year-old athlete was second behind the athlete from China, Tang Lu after collecting 9.71 points at the action at B Hall, Jakarta International Expo, Kemayoran yesterday.

Tan would take part in the Nandao event today for the medal decider.

Another national representative, Phoon Eyin was at the bottom rung out of six participants in the women’s Jianshu event with 9.58 points.

SWIMMING The country’s swimming squad showcased disappointing actions at the Bung Karno Gelora Aquatic Centre after two athletes, Welson Sim Wee Sheng and Phee Jinq En emerged at the bottom in their respective events.

Sim only ranked sixth out of eight participants in the men’s 200-metre freestyle event with a time of 1 minute 47:99 while Phee occupied the last position out of eight swimmers with a time of 1:09:01 seconds.

Earlier, another national representative, Tern Jian Han failed to qualify for the men’s 100-metre backstroke event final after finishing 14th out of 28 overall in the heat. - Bernama