Judokas fancy chances of surprise gold in Manila

BUKIT JALIL: Tan Woon Kiat and Ong Kun Xiong could well be Malaysia’s best hope to end the nearly four-decade wait for a SEA Games gold medal in judo.

Malaysia last won way back in 1981 at the Manila Games and are feeling hopeful when the Games return to the Philippines (Nov 30-Dec 11).

Malaysia has a good chance to end the drought as the nage-nokata event is back at the Games after being dropped from the Singapore (2015) and Kuala Lumpur (2017) Games.

Woon Kiat and his partner Kun Xiong, who won a bronze in the event at the Thailand International Judo Championships in Chiang Mai in June, are confident of a golden debut.

“Kun Xiong and I will be training in Tokyo next month (Nov 2 -10) to work on perfecting our throwing techniques,” said Woon Kiat.

“We have competed against judokas from the region before and I see the threat coming from Singapore, the Philippines and Vietnam.

“However, I’m confident we can give them a good fight following our stint in Japan.”

Meanwhile, coach Marjan Abdullah said that they will also focus on the heavyweight categories for a podium finish.

“We know that the hosts will be banking on their Japan-based athletes and are the favourites in the lower weight categories,” said Marjan.

“So we’ll focus on the heavyweight. I believe we have a good chance in these events, we might even end up with a surprise gold.”

At the KL Games, Malaysia won one silver and three bronzes.

Chong Wei Fu won the men’s below 66kg silver while the bronze medals came from Mohd Farhan Uzair Fikri (men’s 73kg), Nik Norlydiawati Azman (women’s 63kg) and Nor Izzatul Fazlia Tahir (women’s 78kg).