Sukma XXI: Sabah gold medal streak ends with two silvers, five bronzes

KUCHING (Aug 21): Sabah’s run of five straight days with gold medals in the 21st Malaysia Games (Sukma XXI) came to a halt with only two silvers and five bronzes to show today.

Sharon Jastine Silas and Muhammad Khalil Helmi were the state top performers with their silver showings in the weightlifting Men’s 73kg category and the athletics event men’s 400m.

Sharon finished with a total of 251kg after lifting 110kg in the Snatch and 141kg in the Clean & Jerk to settle for second place.

Selangor’s Noor Hirzie Fariez Mustafa won the gold with his total of 270kg (Snatch 115kg, Clean & Jerk 155kg) while the bronze went to Johor’s Muhammad Afik Lili Razak with overall weight of 250kg (Snatch 113kg, Clean & Jerk 137kg).

Khalil gave his in the one-lap sprint event at the Sarawak Stadium but national record holder Umar Osman of Johor was in his own class.

Umar clocked 46.78s to add the Sukma record under his belt while Khalil finished with 48.05s and N. Kanishkann of Perak with the bronze in 48.42.

The state athletics team also added three more bronzes including through Maryjane Juberin (39.01m) in the women’s Javelin throw, which saw Sarawak’s Ng Jing Xuan win the gold in a new Games record of 45.12m. Noor Aliya Alias of Terengganu finished second 39.11m.

Samantha Mae Godfrey Binting also settled for bronze in the women’s Pole Vault with a height of 3.10m while national champion Nur Shahreena Jamizan of Pahang won gold with 3.50m and Dzurianis Aqisya Dzuriamin Azmi of the Federal Territories taking silver with 3.20m.

The third bronze was from Ledia Engku in the women’s 3,000m steeplechase with her time of 12.49.72s. The gold and silver went to Esther Joy Chen Hong Li of Selangor (12.12.66s) and Clezendra Chanda Anak Caveste Empari of Sarawak (12.31.58s).

At the Pandelela Rinong Aquatic Centre, Sabah swimming team ended the day with two bronzes.

Chu Xin Ying clocked 9:34.42s to finish with the bronze in the women’s 800m Freestyle while Kelly Teo Yao of Sarawak (9:23.77s) and Shannon Tan of Selangor (9:32.46s) took the gold and silver respectively.

Xin Ying returned to the pool shortly after to team up with Laura Lee, Annabelle Frederick and Loo Yie Bing to deliver the final medal of the day for the state contingent.

The quartet clocked 4:03.49s to take the bronze while Selangor set a new meet record of 3:55.84s for the gold and the silver to the Federal Territories in 4:02.06s.

As of 7:30pm, Sabah have collected 16 golds, 16 silvers and 35 bronzes occupying seventh place among the 15 participating contingents including Brunei Darussalam.

Meanwhile, 78 gold will be up for grabs on Thursday where athletics and Silambam offering 10 golds each.

The penultimate day of swimming competition will see eight gold set to be won and the rest are boxing (eight), judo (seven), tennis (five), petanque (four), archery (four), weightlifting (three), fencing (three), diving (two), rugby (two), artistic gymnastics (two), table tennis (two), women’s football (one) and cycling MTB (one).