A shining prospect
Teen Sureeya underlines potential after golden feat in Japan
PETALING JAYA: H. Sureeya Shankar looks destined for bigger things after punching his way to a breakthrough win for Malaysia in the Asian Junior Karate Championships in Okinawa, Japan.
In the just concluded championship, Sureeya bagged the gold for Malaysia in the boys’ cadet (14-15) individual kumite below 52kg category after beating Japan’s Matsumura Kotetsu 6-2 in the final.
The 16-year-old, who is from the Goshin Ryu Malaysia, was in excellent form as he knocked out Indonesian challenger Mohamad Sahabuddin 6-1 in the semi-finals.
Sureeya received a bye in the first round and reached the semi-finals by knocking out South Korean Kang Woo-hyuk 9-1 earlier.
It was certainly a sweet maiden victory in the Asian junior ranks for Sureeya, who took up the sport when he was eight years old and now trains under coach K. Vasanthan.
He defended his title in the same category in the South-East Asia Karate Championships (SEAKF) in Manila last month and took the bronze in the Asian junior meet in Kazakhstan last year.
There was double joy for Malaysia as the junior boys’ kata team led by Kojiro Yong fought their way to the gold with a 4-1 win over Saudi Arabia.
The junior boys’ kata team overcame Sri Lanka (5-0) in the quarter-finals before thrashing India (5-0) in the semi-finals.
Malaysia also finished with one silver and five bronze medals.
Pressy Misty Philip delivered the only silver medal for Malaysia after a 2-4 defeat to Kazakhstan’s Alexandra Budkina in the women’s Under-21 kumite below 68kg category.
Sabahan Pressy was a silver medallist for Malaysia at the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games last year.
Poovanesan Madhuri got a bronze in the women’s Under-21 kumite below 50kg category while Ooi San Hong also claimed bronze in the men’s Under-21 individual kata.
The other bronze medals came from Kojiro in the boys’ junior individual kata, girls’ junior team kata and Sivanesan Geerijaieswaran in the boys’ cadet individual kumite below 57kg.
Malaysia Karate Federation (Makaf ) secretary-general Vincent Chen was pleased with the performance of the exponents.
“We have some good talents coming through the ranks. Sureeya is certainly a bright talent to watch. He maintained his record of winning medals in all competitions he took part in so far,” he said.
Hosts Japan (14-5-5) finished as the overall champions followed by Kazakhstan (5-5-7) and Iran (5-4-7) while Saudi Arabia (2-3-5) ended just ahead of Malaysia.