Jonah spins S’wak back into MSSM battle
KUCHING: Remember this name: Jonah Chang Rigan. The Form Three student of SMK Sungai Paoh, Sarikei shattered the U15 discus record early yesterday morning to spark Sarawak’s recovery from picking up only one gold medal on the opening day of the 60th MSSM inter-state track & field championships at the National Sports Complex, Shah Alam. Day 1 was a disappointment. Sarawak collected five silver medals through Grace Wong ( 38.65m in Girls U18 discus), Pethius Jadam ( 53.54m in Boys U18 javelin), Muhd Irsyad (13.05m in Boys U12 shot put), Nurhaziqah Izzati (11.77m in Girls U18 triple jump) and Elizabeth Tipong (13.36sec in Girls U12 100m).
The solitary gold came in the Girls U15 shot put when Celine Khoo Wei Eng from SMK Sarikei High won with her best throw of 11.89m.
More ominously for Sarawak was the team battle for the overall title as Johore emerged as the dark horse of the meet.
It ran away with five gold medals on the first day. Johore have never won the overall title before although their athletes came in third in 2014 and 2017.
Defending champion Sabah stayed in contention by picking up three gold on the opening day.
Jonah jump started Sarawak’s fight back on Day 2 yesterday.
He hurled the disc to 58.78m to shatter the MSSM record by over four metres and beat his nearest rival by more than eight metres. The 15-year- old is not done yet. He still has a good chance to add a second gold when he competes in the shot put.
He i s the overwhelming favourite as he had thrown 17.66m last month which surpassed the MSSM record of 16.80m.
Jonah’s strong performance yesterday led his team to win three more throwing events.
Veteran Ngu Ing Biao had to tackle two events yesterday.
He was the defending champion in the U18 discus.
No problem there as the 18-yearold broke his own MSSM record of 52.89m with a new distance of 54.65m.
His second event was or should have been more challenging.
He is new to the hammer, an event that his Sarawak predecessors have won since 2008.
But the four- time winner of the discus managed to swing the wired ball to 64.48m to claim his second gold, keeping Sarawak’s tradition of winning the event for the 11th year.
Grace Wong, SEA Games champion and Ing Biao’s fellow Fifth Former in SMK Sarikei High, was expected to win the girl’s hammer.
That she did in style with her best of 56.42m, erasing her own record of 54.64m. It was her sixth victory in as many years dating back to 2013 when she first won as a 13-year- old.
Two jumpers added to Sarawak’s gold medal tally yesterday.
Brendan Ting Li King, who is from SM Riam Road, cleared 14.41m to win the boys U18 triple jump.
Boys U12 long jumper Akmal Kifflyza, who is in Primary Six in Serian’s SMK Balai Rigin, sailed to a distance of 5.59m to end a most fruitful day for the Sarawak contingent.
Sarawak, however, has yet to obtain a gold on the track.
But there is hope for the sprinters to make amends in the coming days.
In yesterday’s heats of the 4x100m relays, Sarawak qualified for all of the six upcoming finals.
The girls U18 team ( 49.77sec) and boys U12 quartet (48.46sec) clocked the fastest times.
Three other teams - boys U18 ( 42.52sec), boys U15 ( 43.62sec) and girls U12 (53.43sec) - qualified among the fastest three.
At the end of the second day of competition, Sarawak is leading the medal tally with 7 gold 7 silver and 10 bronze medals followed by defending champion Sabah (6-7- 5) and Johore ( 6- 4- 3) with host and 2016 champion Selangor in sixth place (2- 8- 4).