Malaysia Exceeds Medal Target, Young Athletes Show Excellent Performances

From Farhanah Azmi SINGAPORE, June 17 (Bernama) -- Malaysia amassed 62 gold medals at the 28th SEA Games which ended here Tuesday to surpass the 184 medals or 56 per cent of the overall medals target. The national contingent ended with 62 gold, 58 silver and 66 bronze medals after 11 days of the competition which started on June 5. National athletes had demonstrated an extraordinary performance at the 2015 SEA Games here when it successfully exceeded the 40 gold medals at the 2009 edition in Laos, 58 gold medals at the 2011 SEA Games in Indonesia and the 43 gold medals won at the 2013 Myanmar SEA Games. Based on the National Sports Council's (NSC) analysis of the achievement at the SEA Games in Singapore, 151 athletes below 21 years had contributed to the gold medal collection of the national contingent. Sixty of the total were those who were representing the country for the first time but demonstrated excellent performances by contributing 28 of the 62 gold medals won by the national contingent. Among them, Muhammad Rafiq Ismail, an 18-year-old bowler who reaped three gold medals via the individual, trios and team event. Similarly Welson Sim, 18, set a new SEA Games record in the men's 400m Freestyle swimming with a time of 3:53.97s and Hakimi Muhammad Ismail set his own history by winning the men's triple jump gold medal after a lapse of 18 years en route to creating a new SEA Games and national record. The squash squad, showcasing only back up players, successfully maintained the nation's dominance in the event by sweeping all four gold medals at stake. Apart from gold medals won, five new national records were set, four in swimming and one in athletics. Athletes who made a comeback, especially veteran bowler Shalin Zulkifli who had announced her decision to retire after the Asian Games in Incheon, South Korea last year should also be given credit for helping the bowling team to win a gold medal. Shalin, 37, who made her debut at the SEA Games festival in 1993 in Singapore by winning two gold medals, would bid adieu to her 23-year career as a bowler with one gold medal at the SEA Games in Singapore this time, which was her seventh appearance at the biennial event. Except for the 1995 SEA Games in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Shalin had successfully brought home gold medals in her every appearance - Jakarta 1997 (two), Brunei 1999 (five), Kuala Lumpur 2001 (four) and Korat 2007 (three). She did not participate in the SEA Games in Manila (2005) and Indonesia (2011), and the event was not contested at the SEA Games in Vietnam (2003) and Myanmar (2013). However, several high achievement sports or core sports such as football and boxing had failed to win any medals. The failure of the football team to bring home the 'mother of all gold medals' was actually expected, but most disappoint, they failed to win any medal while boxing event also saw a drop in performance compared to the achievement of one silver and three bronze medals at the Myanmar edition. In this regard, Malaysian Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin in his media conference on Tuesday did not rule out the possibility that the ministry would review the financial allocations for the two sports in preparation for the 2017 SEA Games that will be hosted by Malaysia. The Ministry would also study the allocation for sports development to several other sports which exhibited disappointing performances in Singapore. Deputy Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin, during his working visit here had wanted Malaysia to emerge as the overall champion at the 2017 SEA Games in Malaysia. As the host in 2017, Khairy said 2,310 athletes would undergo training in three phases to ensure every sport was ready for the 2017 SEA Games. If the SEA Games in Singapore is placed as a (Development Games), Malaysian athletes must intensify efforts to optimise their success to emulate the feat of the National contingent in 2001 whereby Malaysia as the host, won 111 gold medals to emerge as the overall champion. --BERNAMA