National women athletes expected to dazzle at home

EXPECT the Malaysian women athletes to shock and awe at the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.

Out of the 845-member Malaysian contingent, a total of 375 are women athletes. It is Malaysia’s biggest women representation in the Games history.

Except for weightlifting and boxing, all the other 36 sports will have Malaysian women representatives.

Said Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) secretary Datuk Low Beng Choo (pic): “Malaysian women athletes have grown in stature and strength over the years.

“In our contingent, we’ve women Olympic medallists, world champions, Asian winners and Open title holders. And they all are fired up to prove a point.”

Malaysia have 2016 Rio Olympic diving silver medallists Pandelela Rinong-Cheong Jun Hoong. Jun Hoong also recently became the first Malaysian world champion in diving.

And there is depth in the bowling team, led by two-time Asian Games champion Shalin Zulkifli.

Then, there is 2012 London Olympian Nur Suryani Taibi in shooting while the karate team is spearheaded by Syakilla Salni Jefry Krisnan, who claimed a historic silver for Malaysia in the kumite below 61kg at the World Championships in Germany in 2014.

“Our women have done well in the past SEA Games and we expect them to keep the strong tradition going. This time I believe we’ll have more new faces making their statements,” said Beng Choo.

“Thailand will be our main challengers. They have capable women athletes who have done well at world level.”

At the last Games in Singapore in 2015, Malaysia bagged 62 golds with women contributing 30. The men won 31 while one came from the archery mixed team event.