MANILA: Khir Akyazlan Azmi’s hopes of contributing at least a silver medal from Malaysia’s boxing squad in the 30th SEA Games were dashed today when he was defeated by Thailand’s Anavat Thongkrathok in the semi-final of the light heavyweight under 81 kilogrammes (kg) event here Sunday.
Khir Akyazlan lost 0-4 in the fight at the Philippine International Convention Centre and had to be contended with bringing home the bronze.
“I humbly apologise to all Malaysians, my coach and the (boxing) association,” he said after the bout.
“The target upon arriving here was to win a medal of any colour, and when I got into the semi-final, I tried to go for the gold or silver, but in the end I could only contribute the bronze from my fifth SEA Games,” he said when met after the bout.
Besides Khir Akyazlan’s bronze, the boxing squad secured two more bronze medals through Muhamad Fuad Mohd Redzuan in the light flyweight under-49 kg and Mohamed Aswan Che Azmi in the middleweight under-75 kg categories respectively.
For national coach Azmi Md Yunus, bringing home just three bronze medals was a bitter pill to swallow as the squad regressed from the one gold, one silver and one bronze won on home soil two years ago.
Nevertheless, he was still grateful for the medals, citing that it was still better than the showing in the 2015 Singapore Games, where Malaysia went home totally empty handed.
“Of course, we would have preferred more, but we just have to accept there are other stronger boxers out there,” he told reporters.
Malaysia’s best showing in SEA Games boxing was in the 2009 Laos edition with two gold medals. – Bernama
