LOOK whose VISITING: National diving queen Pandelela Rinong (second from right) makes a visit to the Sarawak Cultural Village on Christmas Day. She is currently staying with her family at the Damai Beach Resort nearby since 24 Dec, courtesy of SEDC Sarawak. Also seen are her father Pamg Joheng (front), mother Hartini and Pandelela’s siblings.
KUALA LUMPUR: Success after success achieved by national athletes at the international stage throughout 2012, has played a tremendous part in Malaysia gaining a foothold on the world map.
Malaysia despite not being a renowned powerhouse in sports, has a world squash champion in its stable, a world champion in tenpin bowling, a world number one in badminton and several other illustrious achievements.
The year started off in a positive note when world number one shuttler Datuk Lee Chong Wei came close to winning the men’s singles gold medal at the 2012 London Olympics.
Though he had to settle for a silver, the achievement was by far, the highest accolade earned by a Malaysian in the Olympics, while diver Pandelela Rinong matched his feat by winning the country’s first ever medal in diving at the Olympics – a bronze in the women’s 10m Platform – to announce her presence on the world stage of diving.
Pandelela’s bronze medal feat in diving brought about a new dimension in Malaysia’s achievement throughout its participation in the Olympics, since it broke the domination of badminton as the only contributor of medals since Malaysia first took part in the 1956 Melbourne Olympics.
A silver and bronze won in London proved a better haul than the lone silver medal won by Chong Wei at the 2008 Beijing Olympics in China, through the same event.
He incidentally lost to the same opponent – Lin Dan of China – in Beijing and London.
Apart from the Olympics, Chong Wei had also won a number of titles in the BWF Super Series events.
Kegler Syafiq Rhidwan Abdul Malek took the men’s QubicaAMF World Cup tenpin bowling title at the Sky Bowling Centre in Wroclaw, Poland at the start of December to mark another milestone in Malaysian sports.
Not to be outdone by the performance of normal athletes, paralympic athletes who competed in the 2012 London Paralympic Games pulled off a similar feat to match the one silver, one bronze achievement.
Archer Hasihin Sanawi, won a silver medal while Muhammad Ziyad contributed a bronze from shot put. Hasihan’s silver came from the men’s individual recurve W1/W2 (wheelchair) event while Muhamad Ziyad, 22, who hails from Gombak Selangor, pulled off the feat in the F20 category when he threw a distance of 15.21 metres.
The achievement of the Paralympic squad was the best since Malaysia’s participation in the Paralympics.
Another notable achievement was the second place finish by young rider Zulfahmi Khairuddin, representing AirAsia-SIC-Ajo team, in the Moto3 at the Malaysian Motorcycle Grand Prix in Sepang which is part of the world motorcycle championships.
The 21-year-old from Banting, Selangor followed up that feat by finishing third in the Valencia Grand Prix held in Spain to achieve a major breakthrough in the Moto3 ranking list.
The icing on the cake for Malaysian sports must surely be the feat of all-conquering squash queen Datuk Nicol David who captured her seventh world open title at the just concluded event in the Cayman Islands.
By winning in Cayman, Nicol extended her record of World Open titles to seven from eight finals with a balanced performance and great patience to beat English third seed Laura Massaro.
The 29-year-old Malaysian’s 11-6 11-8 11-6 victory silenced critics who had suggested younger rivals were closing the gap on the champion.
But while some sports made giant strides, the national football team lost its footing by failing to defend the AFF Suzuki Cup after going down 1-3 to Thailand in the semi-final.
Coach Datuk K Rajagobal’s boys who drew 1-1 in the first leg held at the National Stadium in Bukit Jalil, lost 0-2 in Bangkok during the second leg.
Malaysian sports was however, not devoid of the usual drama surrounding national sports associations.
Kelantan Football Association president Tan Sri Annuar Musa was handed a 30-month suspension by the Football Association of Malaysia for issuing a statement to the press with regard to the performance of the national football team.
The year in review also saw winds of change in the Malaysian Athletic Union when long serving President Datuk Seri Shahidan Kassim was ousted together with his deputy Datuk Karim Ibrahim, albeit in controversial fashion.
The year also saw the demise of at least three prominent sports personalities, namely former Olympic Council of Malaysia president Tan Sri Hamzah Abu Samah, badminton icon Datuk Punch Gunalan and football legend Tan Sri Abdul Ghani Minhat.
With the Olympics out of the way and the Asian Games not due until 2014, attention will switch to the 2013 SEA Games in Myanmar. — Bernama