By Vikneswaran Raman
HANGZHOU: The Malaysian contingent edged closer towards the 27-medal target for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games after securing another two bronze medals from diving and athletics here today.
National diving queen Datuk Pandelela Rinong added a bronze to the Malaysian contingent’s medal tally from the women’s 10m platform while the women’s 4x100m quartet won an unexpected bronze medal in the 4x100m relay.
The women’s quartet comprising Azreen Nabila Alias, Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli, Nur Afrina Batrisyia Mohamad Rizal and Shereen Samson Vallabouy, were promoted to third place (bronze) after the Bahrain quartet which finished third initially was disqualified for a lane infringement.
The National quartet clocked 45.01 seconds.
The men’s 4x100m quartet was however, not so lucky as Khairul Hafiz Jantan, Muhammad Arsyad Md Saat, Jonathan Nyepa and Muhammad Azeem Mohd Fahmi who had completed the race in fifth spot with a time of 39.19s, just 0.1s slower than the National record, were later disqualified for a lane infringement.
Technically, the Malaysian contingent require only one more medal to achieve the target with five days of competition remaining because squash is assured of at least three medals after three players marched into the semifinals.
However, the colour of the medals in squash will only be known after the semifinals tomorrow or on Thursday which is the scheduled date for the finals.
The three squash players who made it to the semis are Ng Eain Yow (men’s singles), S. Sivasangari (women’s singles) and Mohammad Syafiq Kamal-Aifa Azman (mixed doubles).
As of tonight, Malaysia are in 15th in the medal tally with three gold, four silver and 1 bronze medals for a total of 23 medals while host China continued their dominance with 161 gold, 90 silver and 46 bronze which is a total of 297 medals.
Meanwhile, medals hopes also remain at the Binjiang Gymnasium, venue for badminton with Ng Tze Yong and Lee Zii Jia spearheading the men’s singles charge while 2022 men’s doubles world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, National women’s number one doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, Goh Jin Wei (women’s singles) and mixed doubles pairs Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie are all involved in the race for a quarterfinal spot.
Other sports that Malaysians will see action tomorrow are equestrian, diving, archery, cycling (road race), kabbadi and cricket. – BERNAMA
