Medalists in the Girls Open Hammer (from left) Florence, Grace and Kedah’s Noor Imanina.
Ngu Ing Biao after receiving Sarawak’s first gold medal in the U15 Discus.
KUCHING: Amidst tough competition, Sarawak athletes chalked up four gold medals on the firstday of the 57th MSSM Inter-State Track & Field Championship at Hang Jebat Stadium, Melaka on Sunday.
Ngu Ing Biao took the U15 Discus gold in the first event of the day.
In his first competition at the national-level, Ing Biao had his first two throws disqualified.
His winning throw of 50.53m was only recorded on his fifth throw.
Muhd Azizi (50.30m) of Johor and Labuan’s Nazrul Syazwan(48.19m) finished second and third respectively.
Madalina Mimi was highly fancied in the Sarawak camp for a gold in the U12 Long Jump.
She hadregistered 4.77m in last month’s state championship – 20cm further than the winning distance at lastyear’s MSSM Meet.
But on Sunday afternoon, it was Negri Sembilan’s Ong Zhen who stunned thefield with a jump of 4.77m on her third attempt.
Madalina summoned a fightback but her final threejumps of 4.74, 4.75 and 4.75m were a case of so near yet so far.
Vianeybanu Junin of Sabah tookthe bronze with 4.66m.
Throwing ace Grace Wong lived up to her reputation by winning both the U15 shot put andHammer (Girls Open) in record-breaking style.
Her distances of 13.48m and 50.74m erased herown records set last year of 12.80m and 50.66m.
Fellow Sarawakian Florence Wong was second inthe Hammer with her best throw of 41.36m.
Sarawak’s fourth gold was won by Norris Foo in the Girls U18 100m with a time of 12.43sec (see
related story on this page).
Lim Say King was engaged in a tight tussle with Sabah’s Beckham Buing in the Boys U18 Javelin.Say King led in the first three throws with his best of 52.57m on his third attempt.
Beckham finished strongly and eventually nailed the gold with his fourth throw of 52.81m.
Johor’s Ng Yongregistered 51.98m to take the bronze.
A close battle has also developed at press time between defending champion Norkamisiah Wati andNurul Izzah of Kedah in the 5-event Pentathlon (Girls Open) held over two days.
At the end of thefirst day after three events – 100m hurdles, high jump and shot put – she trails by 60 points toNurul’s total of 1,587.
The student of SMK Tabuan Jaya will have to score higher in the remaininglong jump and 800m to defend her title.
At the end of the first day of competition, Sarawak led the medal tally with 4 gold, 3 silver and 1bronze just ahead of Sabah (3-2-2).
Hosts Melaka join Johor, Terengganu and Kuala with two goldmedals each.
The 5-day MSSM Championship will end on Thursday (May 14).