Malaysia Dominate On Opening Day Of Equestrian Events

From Mazani Chan Yat Sin NAYPYITAW (Myanmar), Dec 11 (Bernama) -- Malaysia made a clean sweep of the two gold medals on offer on the opening day of the Myanmar SEA Games equestrian events at the Naypyitaw Equestrian Ground here Wednesday. Mohd Sulaiman Muda was the hero of the national contingent after winning the gold in the individual 80km endurance race apart from the gold in the team event of the same. The race started at 8pm Tuesday and ended at 6am Wednesday. Mohd Sulaiman was the first to cross the finish line clocking six hours 26 minutes and four seconds. Indonesians Yusnar Yusuf and R. Otto Satyawan Rachmad took the silver and bronze respectively. Yusnar was just a second slower than Mohd Sulaiman while Otto clocked 6:59:00s. Mohd Sulaiman then picked up his second gold medal after he and his teammates, Mohd Bulkhari Rozali, Abdul Halim Alihan and Asri Abdul Aziz posted the best overall time of 21:23:39s in the team event. Hosts Myanmar had to be satisfied with the silver after their riders, Thein Win, Naing Win, Kyaw Zin and Thet Wai Lin finished the race in an overall time of 26:17:35s while Yusnar, Otto, Sopyan Gelar Mulyana and R. Ohimat won the bronze for Indonesia with a total time of 13:25:05s (two riders did not complete the race). Mohd Sulaiman, when met by reporters after the medal presentation ceremony, said this was his greatest success to date in the sport. "Today's success was all the more sweet for me because the course was hilly and dusty and my horse was not all that easy to control in such conditions," he said. Sharing the joy was national equestrian contingent manager Mohamad Din Mat who said he did expect they would capture both the gold medals as the last time these two events were competed in the SEA Games was at the Kuala Lumpur Games in 2001. The Malaysian riders will also be hunting for gold medals in five more events - Dressage Team on Dec 13, Dressage Individual (Dec 14), Show Jumping Team (Dec 16) and Show Jumping Individual (Dec 18). --BERNAMA