MALAYSIA won another two gold in badminton yesterday, just enough to meet their modest gold target and finish third overall with 40 gold, 43 silver and 49 bronze at the Asean University Games (AUG) in Palembang, Indonesia, yesterday.
Lutfi Zaim Ab Khalid and Chow Mei Kuan emerged as mixed doubles champions after defeating teammates Mohammad Arif Ab Latiff-Lee Meng Kean 18-21, 22-20, 21-19 at the Gor Dempo Indoor Stadium.
Top seeded Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin of Universiti Malaya, delivered Malaysia’s 40th gold with a 21-12, 21-14 win over Singapor’s Ashton Chen.
The 23-year-old, who had earlier played a key role in helping the men’s team win gold, said: “This is my first AUG and I feel great to help Malaysia reach the 40-gold mark, especially after we had been lacking in medals over the past few days.
“I had beaten Ashton in the team semi-finals and that gave me a good idea of how to go about today's match.”
Malaysia, however, lost out on two gold in the men’s and women’s doubles finals. Jagdish Singh-Vountus Indra Saniru went down to Indonesia’s Maulana Adiartama-Kevin Sanjaya Sukamulyo 21-11, 18-21, 21-17 in the men’s doubles while Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean lost to Thailand’s Jongkolphan Kititharakul-Rawinda Prajongjai 21-11, 13-21, 21-13 in the women’s final.
The badminton squad ended their campaign with a three gold, two silver and one bronze haul.
Chef-de-mission Prof Datuk Dr Abdullah Mohamad Said expressed his disappointment with a number of sports which failed to deliver at the AUG.
Hosts Indonesia took the overall title with 66 gold, 78 silver and 46 bronze while Thailand finished second on 53-34-26.
“We are relieved to achieve the 40-gold target. However, there is a number of things I am less than satisfied with,” said Abdullah.
“There were quite a few sports that did not meet their targets here. We had hoped that a number of our athletes, who would have normally been expected to win silver or bronze, could raise their game and win gold here but that did not happen.
“We were, however lucky to have a few sports, for example fencing, tennis, table tennis and badminton winning more than expected to make up for our shortage in other sports.”
Taekwondo, sepak takraw, football, karate and silat were among the sports that failed to meet the target set by the education ministry.
Malaysia won 60 gold, 47 silver and 72 bronze for their first overall win at the Games hosted outside the country at the last edition in Laos. By Fadhli Ishak