Kota Kinabalu: Sabah’s karate exponents Amiral Syahirah Azlan and Lovelly Anne Robberth will be making their debut at the SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam this May.
Sabah Karate Association (SKA) secretary general Julian Chin said on Thursday that the two have been selected by Malaysia Karate Federation (Makaf) to represent the country in the biennial Games.
“We are extremely proud that they have been selected to represent the country to compete in the Vietnam SEA Games.
“They deserved to be in the national team with their commitment to the sport and the hard works and dedication shown in training.
“We hope they will make the State and country by bringing home medals even though this will be the very first time for them to compete in the SEA Games,” he said.
Amirah and Lovelly had recently contributed individual bronze medals for Malaysia at the 9th South East Asia Karate Federation (SEAKF) Championship held in Phnom Penh City, Cambodia in March.
Both lost in the semi-final stage with Amirah competing in the women’s kumite -68kg category and Lovelly in the senior female kata category.
Lovelly was only recently called up by Makaf together with fellow Sabahans Niathalia Sherawinnie Ak Yampil and Nancy Nelly Evvaferra to train in Bukit Jalil under the Pelapis Programme earlier this month, while Amirah has been based there for a number of years.
