ROUSING COMEBACK
both reigning Asian Games champions, will be looking to put on a show in front of their home fans at the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre on Aug 22-24.
Malaysia have always done well in karate whenever the Sea Games has been staged on home soil, racking up nine gold medals in 2001 and seven gold in 1989.
Syakilla, one of four individual gold medallists from 2013 back in the squad, is a strong favourite in the women's below-5 55kg event after winning the below-61kg title four years ago.
The 2014 World Championships silver medallist has just recovered from elbow surgery and in her second competition back, claimed a bronze medal at the Asian Championships last month.
Prior to her injury, Syakilla had been in her best form in 2016 when she finished top of the Premier League standings in her event while winning the Dubai Premier League Karate1 meet and achieved podium finishes in Salzburg, Hamburg (both silver) and Istanbul (bronze).
Also returning after gold medal success at the 2013 Sea Games are S. Senthilkumaran (men's below-60kg) Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and guests watching karate exponents in action during Olympic Day celebration at KL Sentral on June 23.
and S. Shree Sharmini, who drops from the women's below-68kg to the below-50kg category.
Chee Wei will be defending his individual kata gold medal and will also link up with Emmanuel Leong and Thomsoe Hoe in an attempt to retain the team title.
R. Sharmendran is another gold medal prospect in the men's below-75kg event after reaching the semi-finals of the Asian Championships in Astana, Kazakhstan, where he beat a 15thranked
Japanese along the way.
While the Malaysian Karate Federation have set a six-gold target, that could be exceeded if the country regains the men's kumite team title for the first time in 26 years.
They missed out on gold in 2013 after a 3-1 defeat to Thailand in the final.
The women's kumite team did win gold and Syakilla will be bidding for another gold medal double when she leads the team out for the event again.