WEIGHTLIFTING: Malaysia on brink of historic Olympic qualification
THE national women's weightlifting team have a foot in the history books after taking the last qualifying place for the Olympics from the team event at the Asian Championships yesterday in Pyeongtaek, South Korea.
The team finished sixth among the countries that have yet to qualify for the London Olympics and finished 11th place overall in the Asian meet.
The team, comprising Nur Nadia Nordin (48kg), Azizah Fadzil (53kg), Franceay Titus (58kg) and Nurjannah Batrisya Abdullah (75kg) will, however, have to wait 10 days for the result to be official, pending the outcome of a dope test.
Should they all return negative results, Malaysia will be able to send one women weightlifter of their choice to the Games.
The men's team, however, were way off the top-six cut, finishing ninth among teams competing for Olympic spots and were 15th overall.
Malaysian Weightlifting Federation (MWF) president Zafarul Akhbar Kassim said: "Both our men's and women's teams gave their all at the tournament and although the men finished just outside (qualification places), the women have done very well to finish sixth.
"We, however, cannot celebrate just yet as we still have to wait for the dope test results."
"If the results stand as they are after the tests, it will be a historic achievement as we will be able to send the first ever Malaysian woman to compete at the Olympic Games.
"The MWF will certainly choose the best to represent the country if we do make it."
The MWF has been in the spotlight for the wrong reasons of late after four lifters were found to have tested positive for banned substances at major local and international tournaments last year.
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