Khairulnizam rues lost chance of winning historic Laser standard gold

SAILOR Khairulnizam Moohd Afendy was a deflated man afteer an early mishap put paid to hiss chances of becoming the first Malaysian to win the men’s Laser standard gold medal inn Asian Games history.

The 25-year-old started the day trailing by just 1.2 point behind South Korea Ha Jee-min, who led after 11 races on 17.8 points.

The Malaysian got off to a promising start to lead after the first lap in Race 12 but his boat overturned and that gave Jee-min the opportunity to pull away and retain the go old medal for South Korea w with 21.8 points. Khairulnizam claimed the silver medal with 23 points. Singapore’s Ryan Lo al also finished on 23 points but settled for bronze on countback. Khairulnizam’s consolation is winning a spot in the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo as his South Korean rival has already secured a ticket through the World Championships in Denmark last month.

Settling for a silver for the second Asiad in a row is painful for Khairulnizam.

“I had a real chance to win my first Laser standard gold in Asian Games. It was a good fight at the start and I was ahead of the Korean sailor,” said Khairulnizam.

“I had a good lead but my boat overturned in the second marker due to my mistake. The game changed after that as he was ahead of me and it was hard to catch up in the final lap.

“I have no one to blame but myself. I’m sad as this is the closest finish I’ve managed in the Asian Games.

“Now, I have two years to prepare for the Olympics and I’ll try to achieve my best result in Tokyo,” said Khairulnizam, who will be making his third Olympic appearance.

Khairulnizam was not the only Malaysian athlete to qualify for the Olympics as Nur Shazrin Mohd Latif also booked her spot in women’s Laser radial class. She claimed a bronze after finishing third on 36 points behind China’s Zhang Dongshuang (25) and Japan’s Doi Manami (13).