TARGET STILL ACHIEVABLE

Norza feels Malaysia can meet seven-gold objective

IT has been almost one week since the Asian Games started, and Malaysia are still far from their seven-gold target. Up to 1pm yesterday, Malaysia have only managed to get one gold so far, through the women’s trio of Esther Cheah, Siti Safiyah Amirah Abdul Rahman and Syaidatul Afifah Badrul Hamidi in bowling in Palembang.

However, Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) president, Datuk Seri Mohamad Norza Zakaria remains optimistic the national contingent can achieve the seven-gold target at the 2018 Asian Games.

With nine days left to the closing ceremony, Norza said the Malaysian athletes are capable of winning at least six more gold.

He expects at least two gold medals to come from Malaysian athletes in Palembang.

“I am still optimistic that we can win at least six more gold medals and the fight isn’t over yet,” said Norza.

“If we look at Palembang, we can win at least one or two more gold medals.

“I think if we win two more gold medals here (Palembang), from bowling and sepak takraw, it would help our mission to seek four gold medals in Jakarta.”

Norza also hopes the success of the athletes in Palembang (who won one gold and two silver) will inspire the Malaysian athletes’ fighting spirits in Jakarta to hunt for medals.

As it stands, Jakarta has only managed to provide one silver medal from Qabil Ambak in dressage (equestrian) and a bronze medal from Yap Khim Wen in women’s poomsae (taekwondo).

Meanwhile, the National Shooting Association of Malaysia have been urged to hold a post mortem following the poor results of Malaysian shooters. None of the Malaysian challengers made it past the qualifiers.

“I have met with the officials and athletes from shooting. They are disappointed especially when our shooters recorded the lowest scores early in the competition.

“We have to look at how to better our weaknesses and how other teams such as India are able to produce great shooters at such a young age,” said Norza.