Sabahan armwrestler wins gold at world championship
Published on: Wednesday, December 11, 2019
By: GL Oh
KOTA KINABALU: Sabah’s Joffey Jolly took the armwrestling world by storm with his historic gold medal at the International Federation of Armwrestling's World Armwrestling Championship held in Rumia, Poland on Dec 3-6.
It was the first ever gold medal delivered by a Malaysian athlete at a world armwrestling championship and he won after an upset win over Yurii Dushko of Ukraine in the finals of the Men’s Senior 70kg right hand category.
ADVERTISEMENT
The professional arm wrestler from Telipok, who also won a bronze in the left hand category was overjoyed with his triumph at the world stage and admitted that he did not expect to win the gold medal.
“I never expected to win the gold this year. It was supposed to be just an eye-opening experience for me against some of the top athletes from all over the world in this competition.
“Nevertheless, I am very happy with the success. I wish to thank all those who have always given their support to me to continue in this sport especially my father, as coach, for his guidance and support. I will try to defend my title next year to raise the name of the country again,” he said when contacted.
WATCH JOFFEY IN VIDEO BELOW, THEN STORY CONTINUES
ADVERTISEMENT
Meanwhile, President of Malaysia Armwrestling Association Mohd Zil Fadli said the gold won by Joffey was a great achievement for the country.
“This is the first time we won a gold medal at a world championship stage and it was a great achievement for the country’s contingent and I wish to congratulate Joffey on his success in contributing the gold for Malaysia.
ADVERTISEMENT
“I knew he had been training very hard with his father in order to bring success to the country. He had definitely shown a huge improvement than his previous gold medal success at the Asian level competition in Turkey in 2014 and I believe the youngster will go further if he can maintain his consistency,” he said.
Meanwhile, the Malaysian contingent also returned with three silver and a bronze medals from the competition.
Safuan Mohd Asif from Putrajaya won the silver in the Men’s Senior 57kg right hand category and a bronze in the left hand category while Sarawakian teenager Abigail Kee Zing Ning delivered two silver medals in the Girls’ Junior Under-15 category.
Head of delegate, Jolly Johnson, who is also Sabah Armwrestling Association (Sawa) deputy president, and father of Joffey was pleased with the achievement despite no specific target was set for the contingent earlier.
“I am extremely proud of our armwrestling athletes with their success in Poland with Joffey winning the gold medal for the contingent.
“It proved that our two months of five-day week training schedule did not go to waste and congratulation also to Safuan Asif and Abigail Kee for winning the silver and bronze medals for the team,” he said.
Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
Daily Express Malaysia
