Taekwondoins kick up 11 gold medals

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by Lian Cheng

KUCHING, Oct 3: On Aug 20, 2024 afternoon, without any rehearsal or prior planning, the Sarawak taekwondo squad broke into a dance to the popular Iban song——Bikinis Bulu Betis——at the State Indoor Stadium.

While the team were folding arms, dancing in circle, one after another, the athletes leaped in to perform individual stunts of either a backflip or front slip, roundhouse kick or spin kick.

Cheers followed every stunt amid the lively tempo of the Iban song which describes a man’s willingness to lay down all he has for his dream girl — a song that has nothing to do with taekwondo but one almost every Sarawakian can sing along, whether Iban, Bidayuh, Malay, Orang Ulu or Chinese.

It was an impromptu celebration. The taekwondo squad had just set a new record with a haul 11 gold, four silver and four bronze medals to top their competition in Malaysian Games (Sukma) XXI Sarawak 2024. The previous best was eight gold medals achieved in Sukma 2016.

Taekwondo contributed the most gold medals——two more than diving, another strength of the Sarawak contingent. The divers won nine gold medals out of 12 at stake.

Sarawak had been leading in taekwondo since Aug 16. The final push for medals, however, came on Aug 20, initially with Maple Law Tsi Eun’s silver medal in the women’s 53kg category and Allexandre Axcell Juntan’s bronze medal in the men’s 63kg category.

Perlis finished in second spot with five gold, three silver and four bronze medals while Terengganu placed third with three gold, two silver and three bronze medals.

Sarawak medallists

Randy Owen Augustine Linggi, 19, stood out from the pack with three gold medals in the men’s recognised poomsae individual event, the men’s recognised poomsae team event (alongside Fedealis Kom Twin and Mohd Isshahril Mazlan), and the mixed poomsae freestyle open team event (with Fedealis Kom Twin and Ken Haw Chin). He also picked up a silver medal in the mixed recognised poomsae pair event with Seah Jing Ying.

Additional gold medals rolled in from the women’s recognised poomsae team event through Farah Nabilla Maddarus, Siti Yusriyyah Zailani and Willemien Lai Lini, the mixed freestyle mixed pair event (Farah Nabilla and Fidealis), the women’s freestyle individual event (Zara Nur Zafirah Mohd Yusof), the men’s 87kg (Aj Yang Yi Ong), the women’s 73kg (Puteri Durratun Zulaikha Samat), the men’s +87kg (Mohamad Zulhafiz Zulhadi) and the women’s +73kg (Pretty Amisha Amanda Francesca).

Silver medals were also won by Joseph Wong Shou Ho in the men’s 68kg event and Christine Ying Zhen Li in the women’s 67kg event while the bronze medals came by way of Willemien Lai Lini in the women’s recognised individual event, Eileen Li Ching Chang in the women’s 57kg event and Soon Hian Chai in the men’s 80kg event.

The taekwondo victory was historic. In sweeping a total of 19 medals, the team also set new records, auguring well for the future of the martial arts sport in Sarawak. As the medallists continue to build on their success in the quest of greater achievements, new and young talents can look up to them as role models.

Taekwondo champ Farah, daughter of surveyors

The strength of Farah Nabilla is in the recognised poomsae and the freestyle poomsae. Though demure and soft- spoken, the 20-year-old is a tough cookie when competing.

Before Sukma 2024, Farah claimed the gold medal in the individual recognised poomsae, the mix pair poomsae and the team poomsae during the 2024 Sukan Sarawak (Suksar).

In the 14th National Championship this year, she took the bronze medal in the individual recognised poomsae and the silver medal in individual freestyle poomsae.

Earlier this year in the Thailand Open, she won the gold medal in the recognised team poomsae and the bronze medal in the individual freestyle poomsae.

Like Randy, Farah only started coming into her own in 2023 where she took home the mixed pair poomsae bronze medal in the 13the National Taekwondo Championship.

In the 10th Taekwondo Interclub Championship last year, she again proved her worth by winning the gold medal in the female team recognised poomsae. She was also outstanding in the Sarawak SSC Championship which prepped her for Sukma 2024.

Coach or surveyor?

Born to parents of professional surveyors, Farah took up taekwondo as young as six years old because her parents hoped sports would be good for her during weekends when she was “practically too free.”

A student of SK Datuk Haji Abdul Kadir Hassan before enrolling at SMK Star and SMK Teresa, Farah is now studying for a surveying diploma at a polytechnic after completing her SPM.

Between taekwondo and surveying, she opts for the former — at least for now — because she has been involved in the sport for over a decade. However, she also knows her future in taekwondo depends very much on whether she will be selected for the national team.

“I will just go with the flow. If I have the chance, I still want to continue being an athlete because that’s what I have been doing for such a long time,” she said.

As a short-term plan, Farah hopes to concentrate on her study which has been put on the backburner due to Sukma 2024.

“For me, training as an athlete is harder than studying. Even if you don’t feel like training, you still have to do it if you want to achieve your goal.

“Many times, you feel like giving up but you continue because you know that’s what you need to do. Studying on the other hand, is easier. If you don’t feel up to it, you can just stop,” she said with an impish smile.

However, after being involved in sports for more than a decade, sports training did teach her something.

“What I learnt from sports, I should apply it in my study. I should treat studying like sports and not to give up when I feel like to do that.

“I can’t expect myself to do well if I only do last-minute revision. Studying must be like sports. I need to keep at it even when I feel like giving up because in the end, I’m the one who will reap the fruit of hard work and be happy.”

Fortune favours the brave

Just before Sukma 2024, Farah admitted she had a serious bout of self-doubt. She was on the verge of giving up after watching the videos of her training sessions.

“Every time I watched the playback, I felt I just wasn’t good enough. When the date approached, I become even more panicky. All I could think of was giving up. I felt I couldn’t do it.”

Like Randy, it was the words encouragement and constant reassurances from family, teammates, coaches that helped regain her confidence. Acknowledging the sacrifices her parents had made for her, Farah would give her incentives from the Sarawak government to them as a gift.

“They have sacrificed so much to let me participate in various competitions — both local and overseas. I want to repay them,” she said. —— DayakDaily

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