Sarawak’s Bernice Gan Siew Hua (left) competes against Sabah’s Norlisa Rusly in the senior category of the 2019 National Armwrestling Championship in Cyberjaya. — Bernama file photo
KUCHING: Sarawak pullers are seeking to make a breakthrough by capturing the overall champions title at the 4th National Armwrestling Championship in Petaling Jaya, Kuala Lumpur from Nov 7 to 8.
Twenty-five pullers including four women will shoulder the state’s challenge in the national meet that will be participated by 11 teams including newcomer Penang.
“We were third overall behind Putrajaya and Sabah last year after collecting six gold, six silver and six bronze medals and this time around, we are determined to improve on that performance,” said Premier 101 Armwrestling Club deputy president Stephen Kee Chu Kiong yesterday.
The Sarawak team was last in the first edition of the tournament in 2017 and improved to fifth the following year.
Stephen Kee
Kee, who is also deputy president of the Malaysian Armsports Federation (MyArm) and president of Asia Armwrestling Federation, is expecting Putrajaya, Sabah and Sarawak to dominate the battle for top honours this year.
“Leading the Sarawak challenge is national number one women puller and International Federation of Armwrestling (IFA) number two Abigail Kee Zing Ning and we will also be having last year’s gold medallists in the team.
“Abigail won two silver medals at the World Championship in Rumia, Poland in December last year. We shall be posing a very strong challenge and the pullers will be selected from the 4th Sarawak Armwrestling Championship this October.
“More than 12 categories are expected to be contested in the Sarawak meet and clubs from Kuching, Sibu, Samarahan, Sri Aman, Sibu, Bintulu and Miri will be sending their teams,” added Kee.
As for Premier 101 Armwrestling Club, Kee said they would field 11 pullers.
Apart from the Sarawak Armwrestling Championship, Kee said there would be no other competitions due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
He added that those who win at the national meet would be selected to represent Malaysia at the World Armwrestling Championship in Florida, US in September next year.
Meanwhile, Kee recorded another milestone in his academic pursuit when he obtained his PhD from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology recently.
The 48-year-old businessman also holds a Masters in Business Administration from the National University of Singapore.
“I feel very happy and proud of my achievement as my six years of hard work has paid off,” he said.
According to Kee, the convocation ceremony has been postponed to next year in view of the current Covid-19 situation in Australia.