SEPANG – There is nothing more gratifying for a mother than seeing her child achieve their dream.
And that’s exactly how 56-year-old Rosni Ab Rahman felt as she watched her daughter, Nur Shazrin Muhammad Latif deliver Malaysia’s first gold medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games in the sailing event on Wednesday (September 27).
Rosni was also happy that the sacrifices she and her husband, Muhammad Latif Suhadi, 56, made to send Nur Shazrin to training every week paid off big time.
Rosni shared that when Nur Shazrin was still in school, she and her husband, who worked in their village in Pekan, Pahang, would sacrifice their weekends to send their daughter to the training venue in Pantai Balok, Pahang, which is about two hours away by bus.
“We are poor people, but my husband and I would do anything to ensure our child gets all the training she needs. Sometimes, the whole family would travel by bus as I also had to take her younger sibling along.
“It’s a long journey, so we have to forgo our work and sacrifice our weekend to send her (to training) and we did this until Shazrin was accepted into the National Sports Council (NSC) training programme,” she said when met by Bernama at KLIA.
Rosni, a mother of five, said she and Nur Shazrin would chat via video calls almost daily, including after she won the gold medal in Hangzhou.
She also hopes that Nur Shazrin, her third child, will excel at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Rosni and her family were at the KLIA this evening to welcome Nur Shazrin as she returned home from Hangzhou.
Malaysian Sailing Association (MSA) vice-president Datuk Hamid Mohd Amin said they will consider giving the 25-year-old Nur Shazrin and the other sailors a special incentive as recognition for their efforts in bringing glory to the country on the international stage.
“We are proud of the achievements of the Malaysian sailing team and we will ensure Nur Shazrin and the other sailors who contributed medals be given full support as they prepare for the 2024 Paris Olympics,” he said.
The national sailing team bagged one gold through Nur Shazrin in the women’s ILCA 6 event and two bronzes through Muhammad Anawi Iqbal Adam (men’s ILCA4 event) and Tengku Nurani Ezaty Tengku Khairudeen (women’s Windsurfing RS:X event). – September 29, 2023