Kota Kinabalu: Sabah added three more gold medals on Saturday at the 19th Sukma Games where weightlifter Elly Cassandra Engelbert (53kg) stole the limelight by delivering two gold medals and set a new game record at Dewan Merdeka, Tapah.She dominated the stage in the morning session in the women 53kg category with a winning lift of 92kg in the clean & jerk to better the old record by 2kg, followed by a 72kg in the snatch to take her second gold.Sabah Weightlifting Association President Philip Gisan, who was one of the tournament officials at the venue, was happy to see his athletes doing good in the competition following the earlier bronze from Nelcy Tunik in the women -48kg clean & jerk on Friday.
ADVERTISEMENT
"We are very happy to see our athletes performing to their best in the competition so far, especially Elly Casandra and Nelcy Tunik, who brought glory to Sabah. "We must thank Youth and Sports Minister Frankie Poon, his assistant Arunarsin Taib and all those in the Ministry and MSN for their support and I hope we will be able to top up the medal tally in the coming days.
The third gold came as a surprise in karate in the afternoon session when Tambunan lass Maychelle Roger Mool who managed a silver in the previous Sukma in Kuching finally came good in the kumite -61kg category with a 1-0 win over R Shalini from Selangor in the final.Karate also contributed one silver and one bronze on the same day with the silver coming in the women kata event through Vellcarollyne Agustine who lost the final to Penang's Adriana Lim while in the men's kumite -60kg, Richal Mattan redeemed himself after his heartbreak 2-3 defeat to eventual gold medallist M Sethupathi by taking the bronze through repechage rule against his Sarawak opponent.
ADVERTISEMENT
Head coach Julian Chin, who is also Sabah Karate Association (SKA) Secretary General, praised Maychelle for her winning performance in the final."Machelle did very well in the final and fully deserved the gold with her efforts and hard work.
ADVERTISEMENT
Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
"I am very happy with the first gold and hopefully we will see more gold medals in the next two days," he added.Sabah ended the day with five gold, four silver and four bronze medals to finish in eighth place on the medal tally standing. - GL Oh
