MALAYSIA BOWL
Steven’s keglers win lion’s share of gold
DEVINDER SINGH devinder@nst.com.my
MALAYSIAN bowlers sealed two team event gold medals in emphatic fashion yesterday to underline their dominance at the Asean Para Games in Bandar Sunway.
The para bowlers finished miles ahead of their rivals with 11 gold medals out of 18 contested over four days at Sunway Megalanes.
Para bowling head coach Steven Teng said the performances from his “heroic” charges offered encouragement that the Malaysian bowlers can challenge the continent’s best at the Asian Para Games in Indonesia next year.
“After winning 11 gold, nine silver and four bronze medals, what else can I ask of our heroes?” said Steven at the conclusion of the competition yesterday.
“Since 2011, we have won about 60 per cent of the gold medals and with a little more belief in themselves, I think we can achieve what I know they are capable of.”
Steven said the challenge will be to translate regional dominance to taking on the likes of South Korea and Taiwan at Asian level.
“Countries like South Korea and Taiwan have strong depth in every category whereas the gap between our number one and two or three bowlers can be big,” he said.
“We need to have a bigger pool of bowlers to ensure the top players are always being pushed to improve. We have to be at our best each time because every country is always improving.”
Steven hopes to convince the National Sports Council to allow the para bowlers more opportunities to play in graded competitions. 2,525 to earn bronze.
“It has been a great week for me as I never expected to win four gold medals,” said Hairul, who added to his singles, mixed doubles and mixed trios victories.
In the B8/B9/B10 event for the physically challenged, Malaysia’s Abu Bakar Nyat, Amin Abd Rashid, Zahidi Lamsah and Wong Kee Son won with a total of 3,263 while Philippines (2,809) and Thailand (2,738) took silver and bronze respectively.
The 11 gold medals won by the bowlers were three more than Malaysia won in 2015 though they fell short of the targeted 13. games two years ago.
"Nine gold is not bad considering the fact that we were not able to undergo intensive training as much as Vietnam and Indonesia did," said Xin Xin.
"We missed out on our target as we struggled with focus and made a few technical mistakes during the competition."
Xin Xin added that the squad need to ramp up their efforts ahead of the Indonesia Asian Para Games next year.
Indonesia emerged as the overall winners of the swimming competition at Para KL2017 with a 39 gold, 13 silver and 12 bronze haul.
Vietnam came in second on 15 gold, 22 silver and 16 bronze while Malaysia settled for third. Aida Adilah Mat