MALAYSIAN athletes bagged another six gold medals, their biggest haul in a day since the competition started, with archery, athletics, table tennis and diving delivering at the Palembang Asean University Games (AUG) yesterday.
In athletics, Jonathan Nyepa did his hopes of making the Singapore Sea Games squad next year no harm after leading a 1-2 for Malaysia in the men’s 200 metre event at the Jakabaring Athletics Stadium.
The 18-year-old clocked a personal best of 21.57s, finishing ahead of teammate Harith Amar Mohd Sobri (21.76s), who suffered a slight ankle injury. In third was Indonesia’s Rozikin Muhammad (21.86s).
Jonathan, who clinched bronze in the 100m on Monday, said he hopes his win in Palembang is only the start of bigger things to come.
“I am very happy because I won with a new personal best. It means a lot to me especially as this is my first AUG,” said the Kolej Komuniti Kuala Langat student.
Malaysia bagged another silver through Zaidatul Husnia Zulkifli (24.20s) in the women’s 200m and three bronze through Bibi Nuraishah Ishak (12.52m), Iskandar Alwi (4.80m) and Noor Amira Mohd Nafiah (13.40m) in the women's shot put, men's pole vault and women's triple jump respectively.
Malaysian archers did well to bag three of the four gold on offer in the men’s and women’s team recurve and compound finals against Indonesian opponents at the Jakabaring Sports Complex.
Norhayati Al-Madinah Hashim, Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh and Saritha Cham Nong took the women’s team compound gold with a 12-10 win over their opponents.
The men’s team (Ahmad Aliff Fadhulullah Alwi, Ahmad Syafiq Azim Saeri and Lutfil Hadi Mohd Yusof) made it a double in the compound discipline before the women’s recurve team (Azuanis Abdullah, Siti Nurul Asiah Mahmod, Shahira Abdul Halim) make it three on the day.
Indonesia, however, won the men’s team recurve with a 6-2 victory over Haziq Kamaruddin, Atiq Bazil Bakri and Muhammad Shaiffuddin Mohd Kamro.
Team manager Suhardi Abdullah praised the team for reaching their four-gold target in the competition. The team are guaranteed another gold via the women’s individual compound event today as the final will be an all-Malaysian affair between Fatin Nurfatehah and Saritha.
Jasmine Lai clinched Malaysia’s first gold in the diving competition after she edged Indonesian Maria Natalie Dinda in the women’s 3m springboard event, scoring 258.20 while the latter managed 207.30.
Malaysian swimmers, however failed to win any events, managing only two silver via Daniel Bego (1:53.07s) and Tern Jian Han (58.05s) in the men’s 200m freestyle and 100m backstroke.
Chan Jie (55.44s)and Khoo Cai Lin (2:06.59s) finished third in the men’s 100m butterfly and women's 200m freestyle.
The Malaysian football team beat Laos 1-0 in the bronze playoff.
Thailand stretched their overall lead to 32 gold, 14 silver and 12 bronze yesterday. Hosts Indonesia are second with 23-38-20 while Malaysia are third with 21-22-35. By Fadhli Ishak