Athletics achieve medal target
Published on: Saturday, July 30, 2016
Kuching: Track and field athletes delivered another two gold medals for the State contingent on the final day of the track and field events on Friday.They became the only team who achieved the target set by themselves with a total of five gold medals even though MSN only expected them to win four.The first gold on the day was won by Ji Fedalliah C.J. in the women heptathlon event. The 20-year-old from Kudat, who only won a silver in the Perlis Sukma Games two years ago, accumulated a total of 4171 points to emerge as champion for the first time.
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The second came from 18-year-old Jomon Papau, who stormed home in a personal best of 4:03.98 to take the men 1500m.It was an unexpected win for the Kota Marudu lad because during training he was slower than teammate Raymond Yew who finished third."It was a good run and I am happy with the win. I am also happy with the time I set which is better than my personal best of 4:10.00," he said.He disclosed that it was exactly a year ago that he took running seriously under coach Mario Pajarillo.
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"I was discovered during the MSSD competition last year in July and since then I have been training under coach Mario."The track and field athletes also added two more bronzes apart from Raymond's, in the men and women 4 x 400m relays.
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The team won a total of five golds, two silvers and seven bronzes in this year's Sukma and Sabah Athletics Association President Fred Gabriel congratulated the team."To achieve the five-gold medal target is easier said than done but we achieved it in the end."It was all down to hard work from all the parties concerned and it showed that with combined efforts nothing is impossible," he said.Meanwhile, in archery, the men compound team of Adriel Gabriel Liew, Eugenius Lo Foh Soon, Mecedger Sage Edie and Wong Co Wan also delivered another gold medal for the contingent while the women team of Diana Tsen, Elva Yvonne Zinin, Kimberly Chong and Roniza Syafiqah won the silver in the compound event.In pencak silat, Sabah had six exponents in the finals but only managed one gold through Suzainee Ison in the Putri D category while Iqmal Mail in Putra B, Izham Hafifi in Putra E, Nor Farah Mazlan in Putri A, Norhamizah Jemrin in Putri E and Rosenidah Mohamad, who won a gold in the last Sukma, like the others had to settle for silver in the Putri F category.Cyclist Natasha Soon, who had a disappointing Sukma Games so far, finally won a bronze medal in the women downhill and it was the only medal won by the team to date.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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