Cheer-s, Jackie!
Wong shows iron will to rewrite his national hammer record
KUALA LUMPUR: Iron man Jackie Wong Siew Cheer overcame his disappointment in the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast last month to rewrite his national record in the men’s hammer event in the Malaysian Open Athletics Championships.
The Sarawakian hurled the iron ball to a new distance of 66.01m at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil last night to erase his previous record of 65.90m set at the Kuala Lumpur Games to break both the SEA Games and national records.
Jackie is the only athlete to break a national record in the three-day meet.
In the Commonwealth Games, Jackie only managed a throw of 64.35m to finish 14th.
The 26-year-old Jackie was thrilled to bits with his success last night.
“I made amends in the Malaysian Open after my poor outing in the Commonwealth Games.
“After my outing in Gold Coast, I changed my technique during training and it paid off,” said Jackie.
“My coach Gu Yuan also told me to rest for a short while to relax my mind and that also worked well.
“I was trying to surpass the 66 metres since last year and it feels really great to finally beat that barrier.
“I must thank coach Gu Yuan for helping me to push myself in the Malaysian Open,” said Jackie, who will be leaving for Mannheim, Germany, for a 50-day training stint to prepare for the Asian Games in Jakarta in August.
It was a double delight for national middle distance runner Savinder Kaur as she won the 800m gold by clocking 2:21.09.
On Friday, Savinder, representing the Armed Forces, bagged the 1,500m gold.
The 21-year-old Savinder said she was happy to win two golds for the first time in the Malaysian Open.
“It was a good morale boost for me. But I have to continue to train much harder as I was not too pleased with my timing in both the events.
“The good news is that former national coach Samuel (Kipsang Rono of Kenya), who used to coach me, will return as the coach for Selangor to prepare for the Malaysia Games (Sukma) in Ipoh in September,” said Savinder.
National middle distance runner Royson Vincent clocked 1:52.52 to win gold in the men’s 800m.
His effort was way off his personal best of 1:50.76, which he did in the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games to win bronze last year.
The 22-year-old Royson said that this was his first competition this year.
“I’m an officer with the Royal Malaysian Navy and only got the release to start my training in February.
“I’m quite satisfied with my performance and will be competing in the Philippines Open next month,” said Royson.