The stage is yours
Eyin set to bid farewell to Sukma with a golden flourish
THE stage is set for Negri Sembilan’s Phoon Eyin to bid farewell to the Sukma in grand fashion.
The 20-year-old bagged her seventh gold of the Games by winning the women’s qiangshu (spear) – her fourth in a row in the event since 2010 – at the SJK Chung Hua No. 3 in Kuching yesterday.
It wasn’t an impressive show from the 2013 Myanmar SEA Games gold medallist, but the 9.45-point effort was more than enough to put her on top of the podium.
Malacca’s Tammy Tan posted 9.35 points for the silver while homester Stephanie Ngu collected 9.33 points to finish third.
Eyin will make her final bow in Sukma today with her sights firmly set on a successful title defence in the jianshu (sword play) discipline. She’s the three-time defending champion.
“It’s my last Sukma so I want to make it as memorable as possible,” said Eyin, who is competing in her fifth Games.
“Having won the qiangshu and jianshu double since 2010, I hope to win both the titles again. Eight (gold medals) seems to be a nice number! But I’m not taking anything for granted,” she added.
Negri Sembilan also won another gold through Khaw Jun Lim. The national exponent won the men’s daoshu (broadsword play) after he chalked up 9.66 points to deny Clement Ting Su Wei of Sarawak his second gold in as many days. Clement could only manage 9.61 points to take the silver.
The win certainly made up for Jun Lim’s disappointment over his failure to defend the changquan crown on Saturday. He and Clement were tied with on 9.63 points but Clement was declared the winner for his high-intensity routine.
Malacca also made their presence felt on the penultimate day of the competition. They won three of the eight golds at stake through Tan Cheong Min (women’s nangun – cudgel), Loh Ying Ting (women’s daoshu – sword play) and Tan Zhi Yan (women’s taijijian – sword).
Sarawak also claimed two more golds to take their tally to four.
Audrey Chan Yee Jo retained her taijijian gold while Elvic Bong Qian Zheng bagged his maiden Sukma title in qiangshu.
Fu Fang Zyun also scored his first-ever victory in nangun to give Selangor their first gold of the campaign.