Esmelda says aye to national duty

Kuching: Sarawak's promising artistic gymnast Esmelda Geling finally thinks she is good enough to answer the national call-up.The 16-year-old proved that she has not lost any of her touches on her return to competitive actions after an 18-month layoff. She capped off her Sukma campaign with a creditable haul of two golds, one silver and one bronze medal.

Esmelda, who last competed at the 2014 Asean School Games, suffered a major knee ligament injury.

She underwent surgery in July last year and has been on rehabilitation before the Games.

But Esmelda is now back on her feet and she has now set her sights on making her SEA Games debut next year.

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And she has also expressed her readiness to train in Kuala Lumpur – a reason that led her to turn down previous call-ups.

"If I were to be offered again, I'll go. I want to," she said. "But I want to finish my SPM first."

Having led the home side to the team crown on Friday, she continued to impress by defending her gold in the balance beam.

Esmelda scored 12.775 to secure the first place ahead of team-mate Cassandra Shelden (12.550) and Selangor's Nur Eli Azmi (12.075).

However, she lost her vault title to Malacca's Tan Ing Yueh, a national elite member. She managed 13.050 but Ing Yueh, the individual all-around winner on Friday, posted 13.500.

Esmelda also picked up a bronze in the uneven bars (11.650) to finish behind Penang's Rachel Yeoh (12.675) and Federal Territories' Natasha Jayadev (12.675).

"I'm satisfied with my achievements here," said Esmelda. "Although I could only defend one of my two golds, I have no complaints. It's not bad to win two golds.

"My knee is getting better but my coach wants me to tread with caution. That's the reason why I didn't take part in the floor exercise."

Zul Bahrin Mat Asri of Terengganu and Selangor's Chau Jern Rong were the two male gymnasts who stood out in the apparatus finals on Saturday.

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Zul Bahrin clinched a double through the floor exercise and horizontal bars and Jern Rong matched his feat by flexing his muscle to claim the parallel bars and rings titles.

Jern Rong's triple gold helped Selangor emerge as the overall champions with five golds, two silvers and four bronzes (5-2-4). Penang finished second on 3-1-3 while Terengganu (3-1-1) and Sarawak (2-2-3) were third and fourth.

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