Sarawak gymnasts bag gold in vault, bronze in team event

KUCHING (Aug 23): After winning only two bronze medals for the first two days of competition in artistic gymnastics at the 21st Malaysia Games (Sukma XXI), the Sarawak camp can finally breathe a huge sigh of relief as they bagged a gold and another bronze today.

Audi Zulkarnien sprang the biggest surprise of the day when she beat seven others including teammate Cassandra Lavigne Shelden in the women’s vault where she scored 11.933 points.

There is no reason why she should not be celebrating this golden feat as she is making her maiden debut in Sukma and having already won a bronze in the women’s team yesterday.

National gymnast Marissa Zaiful Azian of Federal Territories, who had won the gold in the team event and bronze in the women’s all around final on Thursday, and was the favourite to win the vault gold, settled for the silver on 11.716 points while Cassandra collected the bronze on 11.660 points.

In the uneven bars, Cassandra could only finish fifth with 9.600 points after a 0.500 points penalty deduction.

Her teammate Audre Jude Rendih Alexander was in sixth spot with 9.300 points in the eight-gymnast field.

Sarawak Amateur Gymnastics Association (SAGMA) president Johnny Tan Seng Hock was delighted with the performance of the state women’s team and hoped that Audi’s gold will help inspire and motivate her teammates to win gold on the final day tomorrow.

“This (Audi’s gold) is indeed a big and pleasant surprise for us because we had not expected her to win as she is competing in her first Sukma.

“I am hoping that we can win more gold tomorrow in the balance beam and floor exercise,” said Tan.