Terengganu’s golden haul from sailing moves them closer to overall title
TERENGGANU are on the rightght track to reclaim the Malaysiaa Games ( Sukma) overall champiions title with three more days to go.
And the East Coast state must thank their sailors and cyclists forr their significant contributions to propelling them to the top of the medal standings.
The sailing team yesterday made an outstanding sweep by winning eight out of the 14 gold medals on the final day of competition in Lumut.
Sailing is the second best gold-medal contributor for Terengganu behind cycling.
Terengganu have already picked up nine gold medals in cycling through the road cycling, mountain bike and BMX disciplines. And they can expect more to come when the track discipline starts today at Velodrome Rakyat in Ipoh.
Terengganu last won the overall Sukma title when Pahang were the hosts in 2012.
Yesterday, Indonesian Asian Games medal winners Ilham Wahab and Nuur Fatin Solehah Abdul Rahman showed their class by surfing their way to the respective boys’ and girls’ RS-One titles for Terengganu.
The 19-year-old Ilham won eight out of 10 races in the boys’ category while Nuur Fatin, only 17, chalked up six wins and never finished below second in the girls’ competition.
Ilham partnered Nuur Fatin to take bronze in the Mixed RS-One class at the Asiad in Jakarta recently.
“It is an unexpected performance, especially in the girls’ categories as some of them were competing for the first time,” said coach Abdul Rani Idris.
“We were only targeting five gold medals but we will now go back with our best-ever outing.”
Abdul Latif Mansor-Alif Safares Azmi did well to upset Kedah pair Mohd Uzair Amin Yusof-Mohd Afifudin Awaluddin to win the boys’ 420 class. Uzair is a two-time SEA Games gold medallist and an experienced sailor.
Kedah, who were overall champions with five golds when Sarawak hosted the last Games two years ago, had to be satisfied with two this time.
Asian Games gold medallist Fauzi Kaman Shah, as expected, was no match for the others as the 15-year-old Langkawi-born dominated the Laser 4.7 class.
The second gold medal from Kedah came from Khairun Hanna Afendy, the younger sister of two-time Asian Games silver medallist Laser sailor Khairulnizam Afendy, who won the girls’ Laser radial class.