M'sia bag first gold of Games
Published on: Thursday, August 17, 2017
Kuala Lumpur: Hosts Malaysia fired up their ambition to wrest the 29th SEA Games overall title with an early strike, snatching the first gold medal of the Games in the chinlone linking event as expected, and a silver from archer Mohd Juwaidi Mazuki who missed the title by a point to his Indonesian rival on Wednesday. In the bag are also two bronze medals, one from woman archer Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh who was halted in the semifinals from defending the compound gold she won in Singapore in 2015, and the other from the chinlone same stroke team event.The Titiwangsa Indoor Stadium reverberated with strains of "Negaraku" as the Jalur Gemilang was hoisted after Malaysia outperformed the Philippines 391-271 in the linking event. Chinlone is a cane ball game played in a circle, traditional to Myanmar, that made its way into the Games in 2013 when hosted by Myanmar.
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Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin himself presented the medals to team skipper Muhammad Faiz Roslan and his players, Mohammad Kamal Aizat Azmi, Ab Muhaimi Che Bongsu, Putera Aidil Israfi Kamaruzaman, Muhamad Asyraaf Abd Hadi, Izuan Afendi Azlan, Mohd Nazuha Mohd Nadzli and Iskandar Zulkarnain Salim.With three days to the opening of the KL Games, Malaysia are in second spot on the medals table behind Indonesia who clinched both the men's and women's compound archery gold medals.Mohamed Juwaidi, ranked 43rd in the world and a bronze medallist in the last Games, stumbled midway and opened the opportunity for the less fancied Prima Wisnu Wardhana to make up a three-point deficit and never looked back to take the gold at 145-144. A point also separated Malaysia's other challenger Zulfadhli Ruslan from the men's compound bronze. He lost 153-154 to Paul Marton Dela Cruz of the Philippines.Fatin started well to smash the Games and national record with a score of 696 in the qualification.
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She received a bye into the quarterfinal and ousted teammate Saritha Cham Nong to advance into the semifinals where she was forced to concede to Chau Kieu Oanh of Vietnam 142-145."I want to apologise to the Malaysian people for not being able to defend the gold against a better competitor.
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I will make amends in the women's team event tomorrow and in the mixed doubles with Juwaidi," said Fatin who returned with three gold medals from compound events in Singapore.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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