Siti Zalina puts past glories behind ahead of the Games

PETALING JAYA: Past achievements don’t count!

Malaysia’s lawn bowls icon Siti Zalina Ahmad is not dwelling on past glories as she gears up for the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast from April 4-15.

The national lawn bowls team emerged overall winners in the 12th Asia Bowls Championships in New Delhi with five golds, a silver and two bronzes last October.

Two months earlier, they won seven out of eight gold medals at stake in the 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games.

Seasoned campaigner Siti Zalina, who’s a two-time Commonwealth Games singles champion (2002 Manchester, 2006 Melbourne), has tipped the host nation’s bowlers to win the gold medals.

“There’s a vast difference between Asian countries and the Commonwealth countries when it comes to lawn bowls. We did well last year in the Asian Championship and the KL SEA Games but we need to step up in Gold Coast,” said Siti Zalina.

“We’ve worked on improving our game and I can see our skills are better now. We hope that we can find our consistency when we are competing.

“The Australian lawn bowlers will be the favourites, they are ranked No. 1 in the world and New Zealand are No. 2. England and Scotland have world-class bowlers too and it’s definitely harder to win medals here.”

The Malaysian team could only deliver two silver medals in the last Commonwealth Games in Glasgow from the men’s pair and women’s fours in 2014.

Siti Zalina and the rest of the team have been based in Gold Coast since Feb 27 as part of their final stage of training and she has set a personal target of making the podium for her events.

The 38-year-old policewoman will be competing in the pairs event with Emma Firyana Saroji and in the fours with Auni Fathiah Kamis, Nur Fidrah Noh and Azlina Arshad.