SEPANG – Malaysia’s contingent did not go to the Hangzhou Asian Games for a holiday, stressed Olympic Council of Malaysia deputy president, Datuk Nur Azmi Ahmad.
“Everyone had their own vision and mission heading to Hangzhou. I want to thank all of our athletes for their hard work and effort.
“They have performed well, and now we want to focus on upcoming competitions,” said Azmi at a press conference at Kuala Lumpur International Airport yesterday.
Nur Azmi is also the Malaysia Karate Federation (Makaf) president.
Meanwhile, Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh revealed that a total of RM1 million in Sports Matching Grant was given to Makaf to organise the 19th Asian Senior Karate Championships (ASKF) and the 20th Asian Para-Karate Championships in July, which was held in Melaka.
Half of that was returned to the association to be spent on preparing the exponents for the Asiad.
The investment paid dividends as the women’s team kata trio of Niathalia Sherawinnie, Anak Yampi, Lovelly Anne Robberth, and Naccy Nelly Evvaferra, won bronze at the ASKF which they upgraded to a silver in Hangzhou.
In the women’s individual kata, Lovelly could only manage 7th place in the championships, but she bagged her second silver medal at the Asiad.
The most stunning improvement was Muhammad Arif Afifuddin Ab Malik, who also finished 7th at the ASKF, but then delivered Malaysia’s sixth gold and 32nd medal overall at the Asian Games in the men’s kumite below 84kg.
“I’m grateful that we have achieved the target that we wanted. I’m also happy and proud that we could bring glory to Malaysia at the Asian level,” said Arif.
When asked if he would like to be enrolled in the Road to Gold (RTG) programme after his gold medal effort, Arif answered that he just wanted to focus on training and would leave the decision-making to the National Sports Council.
Malaysia ended their Asian Games campaign with 32 medals overall, surpassing the 27-medal target that had been set before the start of the multi-sports event. – October 10, 2023