KUCHING: Taekwondo exponents from Sarawak World Taekwondo Federation (SWTF) had a fruitful outing when they brought home five golds, two silvers and six bronze medals from the recent national meet.
The national meet, which is the 13th Taekwondo Malaysia (WTF) NSC Milo National Taekwondo Championship 2023, was held at the Arena Indoor Stadium, Olympic Council Malayasia in Kuala Lumpur last weekend.
In sparring (Kyorugi), the young athletes that represented Sarawak were Puteri Durratun Zulaikha Samat (gold medal in female open heavyweight), Quraisyah Qadriyah Alffian; Syamimi Lee Xing; Chai Soon Hian (bronze in male open welterweight); Mohamad Danish Haziq Mohamad Nasri; and Jeffson Tang.
Meanwhile, in patterns (poomsae), the young athletes were FedealisKom Twin (gold medal in male 15-17 years individual); Velsin Ki; Vincent Lim; Andy Wong; Nurul Hidayah Abdul Karim (gold medal in female 18-30 years individual); Nur Humairah Abdul Karim (silver medal in female 18-30 years individual); MorrenUrai Lian (bronze medal in female 18-30 years individual); Zara Nur Zafirah (bronze medal in female 15-17 years individual); and Angellete Kee.
Nurul Hidayah, Nurul Humaira and Nur Ifa Husna also managed to bag gold medals in female 18-30 years team category, with Fernando Emmanuel/Wisdom Ting/Richard Ting (gold medal in male 15-17 years team), Sii Chong Soon/Phan Chen Wei/Phan Chen Huan (silver medal in male 18-30 years team), Dione Chen/Jessie Vanesssa/Dini Amalia (bronze in female 15-17 years team), Farah Nabilla/Randy Owen (bronze in mix pair 18-30 years and Nur Ifa Husna/Ahmady (bronze in mix pair 18-30 years team) bagging more medals for Sarawak.
The Sarawak team was led by Grandmaster Tan Check Joon, assisted by team manager Master Pui Jak Joon, team coach from Korea Taeyoung Yun, and assistant coaches Tan Cheng Qiang, Purim PurintAphiban and VirtlamUmpau.
Sarawak WTF thanked Sarawak Sports Corporation (SSC) and Sarawak Sports Council (MSNS), affiliated clubs and parents for their advice and support during the event.
In the meantime, Sarawak WTF president AzizulAnnuarAdenan was impressed with the young exponents’ performance by saying that they did very well in every bout to bag medals for Sarawak.
“I am pleased with our Sarawak team overall performance as they did us proud and had registered an excellent performance on their games debut in Kuala Lumpur last week.
“Their total medal feat also led Sarawak team to the overall team victory in 15-17 years old category and 18-30 years old category respectively,” Azizul said.
Cheng Qiang also added that their players had put up a commendable performance during the national championship.
“We had improved a lot in terms of speed, skill and strategy both in Kyorugi and Poomsae.
“Our players proved themselves a formidable fighter and defeated few great athletes from other states,” Tan added.
