A fruitful outing for junior gymnasts in Japan

BY ASHREENA PILLAI

PETALING JAYA: The national back-up rhythmic gymnasts pulled off an impressive four gold, three silver and two bronze haul from the recent Hibiscus Cup in Okinawa, Japan.

Competing in the junior category, each gymnast competed in two events and national champion Olivia Tai Qing Tong picked up the gold in the clubs event while Chong Lok Yi clinched the bronze.

In the ribbon event, it was an all-Malaysian affair with Lok Yi takiing the gold. Olivia finished second while Shak Yuki was placed third.

Koh Sei Yan, the other Malaysian gymnast, finished sixth and fourth in the clubs and ribbon respectively.

Also competing in Okinawa was pre-junior Amisha Sofia Azli. The 12-year-old won gold in the ball and clubs while Nur Naime Zainul Ariffin finished second in both events.

National development squad coach Lidia Legotina was pleased with the gymnasts' overall performances but rued the lack of cleaner routines.

"Some of them performed well but there were some glaring mistakes. Lok Yi did very well but Yuki made two drops (of the apparatus). Sei Yan did badly in the clubs but had a good start in the ribbon. We cannot stress enough the need for the routines to be mistake-free, no drops. Every mistake comes at a cost," she said.

"But we have some time to work on getting the routines tighter and to bring all the elements together – stability, expression and presentation. They have one last competition, the Miss Valentine 2014 in Tartu, Estonia, from Feb 7-9 before competing in the Junior Asian Championships. Hopefully, we can achieve more success in Tartu," added Legotina.

Malaysia will host the Junior Asian Championships, which is a qualifying competition for the second Youth Olympic Games, at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil from Feb 21-24.

Olivia, Yuki, Sie Yan and Shasangari Sivaneswary Nagarajan, who was forced to miss the Hibiscus Cup after suffering a muscle pull, will be looking to earn their spots at the Games in Nanjing, China, from Aug 16-26.

At the inaugural Games in Singapore in 2010, Malaysia missed out on a medal after Lee Wan Nin, who has since retired, finished fourth in the all-around individual final.

Malaysia knuckle down for Olympics

By FABIAN PETER

Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has tasked the NSI to start scouting for potential athletes to make the Olympics 2020 and 2024 cut.

MALAYSIA have finally taken initiatives to look at long term success, planning ahead of time for the 2020 and 2024 Olympics.

The National Sports Institute (NSI) chaired a meeting with its 18 core sports associations today in Bukit Jalil, and will kick-off their initiative to find more talents beginning next month.

Director of backup athletes Jefri Ngadirin sat with Sports247.my and shared a little about the aim of the programme.

“We have been asked by our Minister (Khairy Jamaluddin) to start looking at long-term plans, and so we have finally decided to come up with this.

“We will be tapping into talents  from the ages of 14-16 from all across Malaysia, and they will be absorbed into this programme. We have spoken to the associations to draft out a list of selection criterias’ which will be presented when we meet in  fortnight’s time.

“Talents will not be chosen based on quality and performance alone, but physical attributes will also be one of the key factors,” Jefri said.

He added that at present the athletes pyramid consists of the national elites, backups and regional athletes under the national program.

However with the introduction of the new programme, athletes selected from the states will have two camps each year for monitoring purposes, and they will also now have the opportunity to be exposed to overseas trainings and competitions.

“At the moment state athletes only train at out training centres’ based in their hometown. With this initiative, we will allow them to go overseas for exposure. We will also invite other nations to come here for friendlies,” added Jefri.

There are currently 251 NSI centres across Malaysia and an estimated 5,500 athletes.

“We are looking at getting a pool of about 700-800 athletes. These athletes will then be monitored closely.

“If we find them exceptionally good, then they may also be absorbed into the national elite or backup squad.

“Our target is to have a camp in Janda Baik next month, using the criterias’ set by the associations. And if all goes well, we should have a pool of athletes at the end of January. These athletes, based on performance, may also compete at the 2017 SEA Games in Myanmar.

“They may not be expected to win anything yet, as we have still have our elites and backup’s, but the exposure may be valuable,” explained Jefri.

When asked about football, Jefri said “Football is a stand alone, they have the National Football Development Programme (NFDP) which is a big programme, so we don’t want to mix it all up.”

The 18 disciplines

Swimming
Diving
Syncronised swimming
Weightlifting
Badminton
Track cycling
Road cycling
Artistic gymnastic
Rhythmic gymnastic
Field hockey
Fencing
Archery
ISSF shooting
Skeet and Trap shooting
Athletics
Sailing
Taekwondo
Boxing

- See more at: http://www.sports247.my/2013/12/malaysia-knuckle-down-for-olympics/#sthash.3QFKlwcp.dpuf

SEA Games report card: Juniors did good

mail

Facebook 0

NAYPYITAW: The Malaysian young guns have proved their worth at the Myanmar SEA Games.

Out of a total haul of 43-38-76, a total of nine golds, four silvers and 12 bronzes came from the national back-up team.

And that is good news for Malaysia, who are searching for new stars to make a stronger assault at the Asian and Olympic Games.

"This is the highest-ever gold medal contribution by the back-up athletes in our SEA Games history, And it does not include the young athletes who are already in the elite squad," said a proud NSC director-general Datuk Zolkples Embong.

The men's back-up athletes who won golds are Lim Chee Wei (men's kata individual), the men's kata team (Chee Wei, Leong Tze Wai and Emmanuel Leong Theng Keong), Eddy Chew (shooting), Sentil Kumaran Selvarajoo (men's kumite's below 60kg), Mohd Irfan Shamsuddin (discus) and Nauraj Singh Randhawa (high jump).

Gole medallists S. Shree Sharmini (kumite below 68kg), pencak silat's Nor Hamizah Abu Hassan and Nur Syazreen Abdul Malik (ganda double) and wushu's Phoon Eyin are from the women's back-up squad.

For the 18-year-old Irfan, the NSC have big plans for him.

"He is one of our outstanding athletes here and we will continue to give him the right exposure. He is our star for the future," said Zolkples.

Of the country's multiple gold medallists, Zolkples was full of praise for Mohd Jironi Riduan for winning golds in the 800m and 1,500m.

"This is Jironi's last SEA Games and he showed great determination and pushed himself hard to the finish line. He will now become our coach at the Bandar Penawar Sports School."

Zolkples, however, was disappointed with four sports – football, sepaktakraw, archery (compound) and cycling (road).

"We invested so much on sepaktakraw and they could not even nick one out of the 18 gold medals. These sports need to review their performances," said Zolkples.

Other assessments by NSC

• A total of 13 sports were given excellent billing for winning gold medals – swimming (4), diving (8), badminton (1), billiards and snooker (1), bodybuilding (1), equestrian (3), hockey (2), karate (7), shooting (1), muay (2), sailing (2), wushu (3), archery recurve (2).
• Five sports – cycling, football, archery compound, athletics and pencak silat – failed to meet the gold medal target.
• Six sports – equestrian, badminton, karate, muay, swimming, billiards and snooker – delivered more than they promised.
• Six national records were set through Mohd Irfan Shamsuddin (men's discus), Jackie Wong Siew Cheer (men's hammer), Mohd Hakimi Ismail (men's triple jump), Iskandar Alwi (men's pole vault), men's 4x200m freestyle (Lim Ching Hwang, Kevin Yeap, Daniel Bego and Welson Sim) and Nor Khasida Abdul Halim (women's weightlifting, 69kg).

Eyin makes it the 1,000th gold for Malaysia

Eyin makes it the 1,000th gold for Malaysia

BY STARSPORT TEAM

Golden girl: 17-year-old Phoon Eyin won Malaysia's 1000th gold at the SEA Games in the qiangshu event in Naypyitaw. Filepic

NAYPYITAW: Wushu exponent Phoon Eyin claimed a surprise gold for Malaysia in the women's qiangshu event at the SEA Games on Monday.

The 17-year-old schoolgirl said, “I want women qiangshu to spark a big celebration for the Malaysian contingent at the Myanmar SEA Games in Naypyitaw.”

Eyin, making her debut, scored 9.67 to win the 1,000th gold medal for Malaysia in SEA Games history.

Vietnam's Duong Vi took silver with 9.59 while Thalia Lovita of Indonesia took the bronze with 9.40.