SYAKILLA INJURY HITS HARD
National exponents feel the pressure without the Asian Games gold medallist
REPORTS BY DEVINDER SINGH devinder@nst.com.my
THE absence of the injured Syakilla Salni Jefry Krishnan puts more pressure on the rest of the national exponents to deliver results when the Karate1 Premier League series resumes in Rotterdam tomorrow.
Despite continuing treatment after an elbow operation, the Malaysian Karate Federation (Makaf) have registered Syakilla for the tournament with the exponent travelling to the Dutch city with her 12 teammates.
However, 2014 Asian Games gold medallist Syakilla will only be training and not competing in the women’s below55kg with Makaf registering her in the event to ensure she does not lose out on world ranking points.
“Syakilla will weigh in and then withdraw from the competition. She will not be fighting as she is still recovering from injury,” said Makaf secretary-general Vincent Chen yesterday.
Vincent said he is keen to see if the likes of S. Shree Sharmini and S. Senthil Kumaran can maintain the performances they showed at the Paris meet in January.
“I am looking forward to see if Senthil can replicate his performance which saw him win a silver medal in Paris,” said Vincent. “The kata athletes too will be competing for the first time this season.
“Our main hope is on the men’s team (of Thomson Hoe, Emmanuel Leong, Ivan Oh) while we also hope the women’s team go far.”
Senthil’s run to the final of the men’s below-60kg in Paris came despite not having competed internationally since the 2014 Asian Games in Incheon, where he won bronze, before leaving the sport for two years.
He returned to training in August last year before being absorbed into the Kita Juara Sea Games programme after winning at the National Championships late last year.
“To reach the final with this competitive performance in the face of strong rivals is good because his division is represented by 500 athletes,” said national coach Andrijs Vasiljevs.
“To get in the final is a good achievement. But let’s take it one step at a time, he is back and needs to be consistent. Once consistency is achieved, then we can talk more.”
Others competing in Rotterdam are Lim Chee Wei (men’s individual kata), R. Sharmendran (men’s below-75kg), S. Prem Kumar (men’s below-60kg), C. Shamalarani (women’s below-50kg) and women’s kata exponents Celine Lee, Thor Chee Yee and Chang Sin Yi.