Sabah karatekas lose title defence by hair
KOTA KINABALU: It so close, and yet so far for Sabah as they went down fighting in their title defence of the National Cadet, Junior and Under-21 Championships in Perak over the weekend.
Sabah totalled seven gold, five silver and 11 bronze medals to finish two gold shy en-route to emerging as overall champions like last year.
The gold medal haul was also three short of their target in the just concluded 28th edition of the championship held at Dewan Seri Perdana, Kolej Sains Kesihatan in Ipoh.
The state juniors settled for second best this time around, narrowly losing to new overall champions Malaysia Hayashi Ha Karate Federation with eight gold, five silver and six bronze medals.
The Penang Karate Federation was third with seven gold, three four silver and eight bronze medals.
“Another one gold would have seen us retain our overall title, but some athletes did not deliver the result as we expected.
“I was hoping to get one gold from our girls in the Junior category, but it was not to be. I was also a bit disappointed because we expect more from all of our Sukma (Malaysia Games) exponents but only Pressy (Misty Philip) won,” Sabah Karate Association (SKA) Julian Chin told the Borneo Post on Sunday.
Having said that, Julian admitted the competition was tough and that some of the silver medallists had lost to exponents from Hayashi Ha and Penang, the country’s powerhouse for the Kumite and Kata events respectively.
“The positive thing is that we now know our athletes’ standard compared to other states. It is a good problem to have because we can still improve in preparation for Sukma (in September),” he said.
Julian also added in a text message that they needed to reboot their training programmes and rectify the weaknesses of the athletes and coaches to face Sukma.
“We did not retain the overall champion (title) but we have a pool of athletes who can be groomed further to higher level.
“We will not stop, but work harder...I think a lot can be done to improve further,” he was quoted in the text message.
Towards this end, Julian expressed thanks to the Youth and Sports Ministry and Sabah Sports Council for their support, as well as those involved in the preparation of the team namely the coaches, officials, parents and athletes.
Sabah’s gold medal winners were Lovelly Anne Robberth with two from the Cadet Female Individual Kata and Individual Kumite -47kg, Muhammad Rafiuddin Faiz Razmi (Cadet Male Kumite +70kg), Ivan Charles (Cadet Male Kumite 70kg), Carl Pearson Philip (Junior Male Kumite -61kg), Alvin Tam (Junior Male Kumite -76kg) and Pressy (Under-21 Female Kumite -68kg).
The silver medallists were Leong Jia Chii (Cadet Female Kumite +54kg), Eldrich Aaron Jubili (Cadet Male Kumite 63kg), Junior Female Team Kata, Junior Male Team Kata and Vellcarollyne Agustine (U21 Female Ind. Kata).
Michellin Linus Michael (Cadet Female Kumite +54kg), Alysheron Maunsiong (Cadet Female Kumite -54kg), Josvin Jase (Junior Male Ind. Kata), Richal Mattan (Junior Male Kumite -55kg), Reyhon Handeri @ Hamzah (Junior Male Kumite -55kg), Alexandra Jacklya Dakius (U-21 Female Ind. Kata), Maychelle Roger Mool (U-21 Female Kumite -61kg), Kelleyment Kahan (U-21 Male Kumite +84kg), Stanley Dulian (U-21 Male Kumite -60kg), McRoyce Donovan Dagul (U-21 Male -67kg) and Arthuric Gideon Jiwin (U-21 Male Kumite -84kg) delivered the bronze medals.