S’wakians dominate in Sukma’s ‘Game of Throws’
SARAWAK completed their domination in the throw events in the Sukma XIX athletics competition when Abdul Rahman Lee clinched the gold medal in the men’s discus at Perak Stadium yesterday morning.
Rahman posted his best throw of 48.94m in his second attempt to beat seven other contestants including teammate Ngu Ing Biao for Sarawak’s athletics fi fth throw gold and sixth overall.
Queenie Ting started the ball rolling when she captured the women’s discus on the first day on Monday, followed by Johnny Ling who won the men’s hammer throw on Tuesday while Wong Nie Nie won the women’s javelin and Grace Wong the women’s hammer throw on Wednesday.
Ing Biao completed a one- two f inish for Sarawak when he took the silver with his throw of 47.57m and Selangor’s Faris Haziq Jamaluddin settled for bronze with a throw of 40.91m.
“I feel happy for winning today and this is my personal best record so far,” said Rahman who is training with national discus thrower Muhammad I r fan Shamsuddin under national coach Fero Petrovic from Slovakia.
“I would like to dedicate this win to my coach and parents.
“Petrovic has brought me up to another level in the past two months,” said the 20-year old who is doing his pre-university study in Kuala Lumpur.
This i s Rahman’s second and final Sukma and it was an improvement from the silver achievement at the last Sukma in Sarawak two years ago.
“Ing Biao was my greatest rival today. I wasn’t very confident of winning but in the end I managed to beat him. My next target is to do 51m in the next competition to qualify for the Philippines 2019 SEA Games,” he added.
Meanwhi le, Mohd Rizzua Haizad Muhamad defended his title in the men’s 110m hurdles after he crossed the fi nish line in 14.25s while Sabah’s Benedick Ian Gawok took the silver in 14.46s and Perak’s Muhd Naim Abdullah the bronze in 14.92s.
It was Sarawak’s seventh gold in athletics which surpassed their target of six golds in Sukma XIX.