111-Gold medal target achieved
SPORTS With two more days to go before the finale of 29th SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia have already achieved their target of 111 gold medals.
KUALA LUMPUR: With two more days to go before the finale of 29th SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia have already achieved their target of 111 gold medals.
World champion Mohd Azizulhasni Awang claimed the sacred number after defeating his Malaysian counterpart Muhamad Shah Firdaus Sahrom in the Men’s Individual Sprint final last night at the packed National Velodrome, Nilai, Negeri Sembilan.
The counting started to get hyped up right after Malaysian rhythmic gymnast Amy Kwan Dict Weng delivered the 100th gold medal in style by winning the ribbon apparatus final earlier yesterday, and the tally increased through gymnastics, diving, silat, squash, and hockey respectively, before the cycling team delivered the 109th, 110th and 111th.
Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin chose Twitter to share the good news where he tweeted – “Mission accomplished. #111 done. #KitaJuara”, indicating that Malaysia has become the overall champions.”
However, Khairy, who is also the chairman of Malaysia Organising Committee (MASOC), said that the fight is not over yet since Malaysia already envisioned to surpass the 111 golds (which was achieved when hosting the 21st edition back in 2001), and create an all time own record in gold medals since the inception of the games in 1959. Malaysia were also overall champions in 2001.
By late yesterday afternoon, a brilliant finish in rhythmic gymnastics gave Malaysia five more solid golds to raise their overall tally to 101, leaving far behind Thailand with 57, Vietnam 53, Singapore 48, Indonesia 31, the Philippines 23, Myanmar seven, Laos two and Cambodia one.
Tiny Timor Leste with 50 athletes finally gained a medal - a bronze from Sonia Martins Soares in taekwondo kyorugi women’s under 46kg. With this, none of the 11 participating countries will go home empty-handed.
As the Games brace for a monstrous day today with the highest number of 60 gold medals at stake, long queues snaked outside the Shah Alam Stadium to snap up tickets for men’s football gold battle between Malaysia and Thailand set for kick-off at 8.45pm the same night.
As expected, Malaysia dominated rhythmic gymnastics completely to sweep all eight gold. Koi Sie Yan, Amy Kwan Dict Weng and Izzah Amzan took turns to dominate all four individual apparatus as expected before the national team wrapped up the group mixed apparatus with gold.
Kwan clinched the country’s 100th gold in the ribbon and also taking the hoop silver while Izzah Amzan finished tops in the ball and collected the club silver as well. Koi, individual all-around champion, packed away the club and hoop gold and silver in the ribbon and ball.
A beaming Kwan, 22, told reporters that the two gold medals (team event and ribbon apparatus) she had won were precious to her as she had to wait for a few years before she could finally perform for the country.
“This is my first SEA Games as a super senior gymnast. I had to bow out of the 2015 SEA Games due to injury. Thank you so much Malaysia, my family, coaches, MSN (National Sports Council) and ISN (National Sports Institute) for supporting me,” said the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games bronze medallist.
In equestrian, Filipino Colin Syquia denied Malaysia a sweep in show jumping by dislodging previous champion Sharmini Christina Ratnasingham for the individual gold
Also, Malaysia are finally assured of a first gold from badminton as Soniia Cheah and Goh Jin Wei advanced into the women’s singles final today while mixed doubles Goh Soon Huat and Shevon Jemie Lai have also qualified for the final and will know their opponents later yesterday. - Bernama