Sarawak finish fourth with 42-gold tally in 19th Sukma

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Sarawak men’s squash team (left) pose with the gold and bronze medalists yesterday.

IPOH: After nearly two weeks of intense competition, Sarawak captured 42 gold, 36 silver and 60 bronze medals to finish fourth overall in the 19th Sukma.

Four-time overall champions Terengganu clinched their fifth title after amassing 56 gold, 51 silver and 53 bronze medals. Federal Territory (52-38-50) was third while 9-time champions Selangor (47-68-67) was third after failing to defend the title they won in the 2016 Sukma Sarawak.

Sarawak’s hope of winning any of the ten gold medals on offer in the final day was dashed when they lost 1-2 to Kuala Lumpur in the men’s team squash final at Squash Arena, MBI Sports Complex yesterday.

Ma Teck Leck claimed the first point beating Jared Michael Nalliah 3-0 (11-6, 11-7, 11-2). But his teammates were unable to secure any more point for Sarawak.

Marcus Sim Wei Jie bowed out to national player Ng Eain Yow 0-3 (6-11, 5-11, 2-11) while Nathan Kueh Tze Bing lost 1-3 (8-11, 13-11, 4-11, 8-11) to Muhammad Aqil Ampangi for Sarawak settle for the silver.

In joint third were Negeri Sembilan and Sabah.

Earlier, the women’s team final saw Kedah beating Negeri Sembilan 2-0 for the gold while Kuala Lumpur and Sabah finished joint third.

With yesterday’s results, Sarawak ended their squash campaign with one silver and one bronze through Ma Si Yi in the women’s singles.

The cycling competition also ended with Sarawak failing to secure any medal at Perak Velodrome yesterday.

Sarawak athletes competed in all 29 sports and targeted 77 gold medals in the hope of landing the overall title.

Athletics and bowling emerged as the best performing sports with seven golds each.

Archery, pencak silat and wushu each contributed four golds. Winning three golds were swimming and taekwondo while diving, muaythai, shooting and weightlifting all had two.

Collecting a single gold were artistic gymnastics and sepak takraw.

Sarawak won the overall title three times in 1990, 1992 and finally in 1994 when the 5th Sukma was also held in Perak.