Sarawak poised to top medal tally for taekwondo

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Medal contributors to Sarawak yesterday are (from left) Virtlam Umpau, Chai Chun Hui and Licky Donny Ling. — Photo by Teo Chi Wei

Medal contributors to Sarawak yesterday are (from left) Virtlam Umpau, Chai Chun Hui and Licky Donny Ling. — Photo by Teo Chi Wei

KUCHING: There was no golden glitter for the Sarawak taekwondo team on the third day of competition at the Sarawak Indoor Stadium in Petra Jaya yesterday.

However, they were consoled by winning a silver medal through Chai Chun Hui who lost 1-13 to Kedah’s Balakumaran Govindasamy Naidu in the men’s feather weight (63-68kg).

Chai turned out to be Sarawak’s sole finalist of the day. “I am quite sad that I got the silver medal as this is my last time participating in Sukma. But at the same time time, I am happy as well because I made it to the final,” was how the 21-year-old summed up his feelings yesterday.

The bronze medallists were Ahmad Izzat Ahsanuddin Sofian of Brunei and Muhammad Zuhair Nor Azam of Terengganu.

Virtlam Umpau, silver medallist at the 2014 Perlis Sukma, contributed a bronze medal for Sarawak after losing in the men’s light weight (68-74kg) semi-final.

The gold went to Federal Territory’s Woo Wai Keong who defeated Muhammad Aizzat Ikhram Turiman from Perlis.

Sarawak’s other bronze in taekwondo yesterday came from Licky Donny Ling who lost in the semi-finals of the men’s bantam weight (58-63kg).

The champion was Chua Xin Wei of Selangor who out-pointed Johor’s Muhammad Haziq Mazlan in the final.

Federal Territory collected another gold medal in the women’s bantam weight (49-53kg) through Jasmin Nabilla Sukardi, bringing their medal tally in taekwondo to four golds and three silvers.

Four more gold medals will be offered on the final day today and Sarawak are targeting to capture another gold to be crowned as champions in the sport.

They have won six gold, three silver and three bronze medals so far to top the medal standings.

Federal Territory will pose the biggest title threat to Sarawak as there is a possibility that they can overtake them in the gold medal count.

Yesterday’s other two gold medals were won by Terengganu’s Nurul Farah Alisa Roslan in the women’s feather weight (53-57kg) and Johor’s Dwi Regina Ismail Uvaraj in the women’s light weight (57-62kg). — by Ting Tieng Hee