Iskandar blames his loss in the final on lack of exposure

DEBUTANT Muhd Iskandar Zulkarnain Ahmad has blamed the lack of exposure for his loss to Rio de Janeiro Olympic silver medallist Tawin Hanrap of Thailand in the men’s taekwondo below 58kg final.

Iskandar was no match for the Thai, losing 733 at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre yesterday.

“This is my first SEA Games and I feel that I did well to reach the final by winning two bouts,” said Iskandar, who had a twomonth training stint in Seoul, South Korea, in June.

“In the final, I even managed to kick Tawin in the face to earn three points. I was not nervous about fighting a worldclass exponent. I lost because of my inexperience.

“It was a good learning curve for me in the Games. I hope to make a bigger impact at the 2019 Games in the Philippines.”

Iskandar had earlier defeated Cambodian Pan Khemra 3429 in the first bout before downing Timor Leste’s Nilton Gilman Corte Real De Jesus Lemos 3322 to check into the final.

Nur Dhia Liyana Shaharuddin also faced a Rio Olympian in bronze medallist Panipak Wongpattanakit of Thailand in the women’s below 49kg final.

Nur Dhia was also outclassed, losing 139 to Panipak, who won gold at the World University Games in Taiwan last week.

The 23yearold Nur Dhia of Terengganu was happy with her first medal in three Games.

“Panipak is far too strong, winning the silver is a good achievement for me,” said Nur Dhia.

Malaysia also won two bronzes through James Tee Chong Sheng (men’s below 63kg) and Nurul Nur Hafizzah Mahdi (women’s below 73kg) on the last day of the competition.