Kota Kinabalu: Sabah deaf athletes successfully defended their overall title in the National Deaf Athletics Championship held at the City Stadium in Penang over the weekend.
They took home 11 gold, three silver and two bronze medals to top the medal table for the second time following their maiden victory last year where they collected eight golds, seven silvers and five bronzes.
The gold medals winners were Steffy Stacy Lakim (100m, 200m, long jump), Daniel Allex Bobay Alex (200m, 400m, long jump), Elvinsoon Tiono Tinus (discus, shot put), men’s 4x400m (Daniel Allex, Ali Uwais Redzuan, Azlan Kuste, Aidil Asyraff Juakim); 4x100m mixed (J. Walddren J. Oswald, Ali Uwais Redzuan, Steffy Stacy Lakim, Atasya Faqeha Juakim); 4x400m mixed (Azlan Kuster, Atasya Faqeha Juakim, Aidil Asyraff Juakim, Steffy Stacy Lakim).
The silver medals were delivered by Elvinsoon Tiono Tinus (javelin), women’s 4x100m team (Neovatte Jospely, Steffy Stacy Lakim, Atasya Faqeha Juakim, Elsie Elissa Noraimin) and the men’s 4x100m team (Aidil Asyraff Juakim, J. Walddren J. Oswald, Azlan Kuste, Daniel Allex), while the bronze medals came from Atasya Faqeha Juakim (400m), women’s 4x400m (Neovatte Jospely, Elsie Elissa Noraimin, Leona Simon, Pyster Yvone Rony).
Sabah was represented by 12 athletes led by coach Mario Ocado Pajarillo with Juiren Elip and Fakhrul Nazri as officials.
Sabah Deaf Sports Association president Spencer Soo Kok Heng when contacted on Tuesday congratulated the contingent for the success in defending their title.
He urged the athletes to build on the momentum and focus on the coming Sopma XXII Sarawak in October this year.
He added that following their impressive achievement, Azlan Kuste, Ali Uwais, Elvinsoon Tiono, Steffy Stacy, Aidil Asyraff and Atasya Faqeha have been selected to represent the country at the 2nd SEA Deaf Games to be held in Indonesia later this year.
He also thanked Sabah Sports Council for their support and hoped more sponsors will come forward to give their support to their programme.
