Abigail in action during the competition.
KUCHING: Sarawak’s up and coming amateur puller Abigail Kee Zing Ning reached another milestone of her career when she achieved the number one ranking in the Women’s Right 75kg Above in the General Division of the Unified Rating Professional Armwrestling (URPA) by The Professional Armwrestling League (PAL) recently.
She has been awarded 50 points following her win in the Women’s Right 75kg category in the 4th Premier 101 International Charity Armwrestling Competition last month.
This also a historic breakthrough for the 15-year old student of SMK Batu Lintang as she is the first Malaysian female puller to become the number one puller in her category since the URPA was launched by PAL last December.
“It’s a dream come true for me and I still can’t believe that I have done it. It came too quickly and it was hard to believe,” said the national overall (junior and women) number one who picked up the sport when she was 12 years old.
“I didn’t know about it until my father showed me the rankings. I feel very happy and proud and I hope this achievement can also help to inspire and motivate other female pullers.
“I feel happy and proud because I have trained very hard for it and my commitment and sacrifices has paid dividends,” said Abigail.
She had trained six days a week from 6pm to 10pm and even trained for one to two hours in the morning when a competition is around the corner.
“I would like to thank my coach Goh Thian Weai, my father and mother and all those who have encouraged and supported me in my endeavours,” she added.
Abigail will be going for the Zloty Tur in Poland this November where she hoped to compete against more pullers from other countries and learn from them.
“I am aiming for a Top 10 finish in my category. It will be very tough but I am determined and will do my best. You must believe in yourself,” said Abigail.
Her idols are Kyoyrgali Ongarbaev of Kazakhstan and world women’s champion Snezhana Babaieva from Ukraine.
Goh congratulated Abigail on her achievement and hoped she will stay level-headed and work even harder for more high-level success.
“As her coach, I feel happy and proud for her. She is the first one from Malaysia to achieve this ranking. It will get harder to get this ranking because there will be more Malaysians taking part in competitions which offer URPA points.
“She is still young and have a bright future. I have higher expectations for her. This is the first step that she achieved a new milestone,” he said.
Goh, a certified coach and referee who is from Penang and married to a local Chinese, has plans for Abigail to compete in the South Korea Silvis Classic against Japanese, South Korean and Russian competitors.
“She should be exposed to more competitions and compete with more different pullers,” he said.
“I would like to take this opportunity thank the Ministry of Tourism, Arts, Culture, Youth and Sports especially its Minister Datuk Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah as well as the Sarawak Sports Corporation CEO Dr Ong Kong Swee for their kind assistance and support not only in funding, morale support but also working together with other government departments and agencies to create a good environment for armwrestling to bloom in Sarawak.”
“Without them, Abigail could not have achieved such a great milestone,” added Goh.
He regards URPA as an unique rankings system because it has opened up the opportunity for more pullers to compete in world class competitions outside the World Armwrestling Championship (WAC).
According to Goh, many talented pullers were unable to compete in the World Armwrestling Championship organised by the World Armwrestling Federation (WAF) because it was not only costly but also limited to national pullers from respective countries.
“It will cost RM5,000 to RM10,000 for a Malaysian puller to compete in a world championship which is normally held in Europe. You need to be selected by your country to compete in that competition,” he pointed out.
Goh said since URPA was launched in December last year, more than 1,000 pullers have registered and competed in the competitions in countries such as South Korea, India, China, Latvia and Sarawak, Malaysia.