KUCHING: A 17-year-old rookie boxer Muhammad Syawal Mohd lsham was one of the surprises in the just concluded Suksar held in Miri.
Suksar 2019 had uncovered a ‘diamond in the rough’ in Muhd Syawal who represented Southern Zone (Kuching, Samarahan, Serian).
The talented teenager won gold in boxing in the bantamweight category despite having barely eight months of training in a sport he took up for the first time. His gold win also helped the Southern Zone capture the overall title with six gold and one silver medals. More interestingly is that the student from SMK Tunku Abdul Rahman here is the son of former Sarawak Sukma boxer Mohd Isham bin Sulai.
He was introduced to the Sukma team because he wanted to try out boxing in the Sukma shadow team.
“My son one day just told me he liked to take up boxing so I trained him the basics in my house for two months before I introduced him to the Filipino coach in charge of the Sukma team.
“I advised to him to stay in the sport and don’t give up halfway, just keep at it and be consistent in his training.
“He is also an active boy who plays all kinds of sports like football, sepak takraw and he has a good height of 1.75m which is quite like me with the long reach advantage in boxing.
“What surprised me was that he only had a few months of informal training before training for eight months under the Filipino coach. Surprisingly, he was able to win the gold in Suksar in his first attempt,” said his father who was a silver medallist in boxing in Sukma 2000 held in Penang.
Mohd Isham, who had a family of eight with Mohd Syawal as the second eldest, said although he did not coach him for long period he could see the son is quite good, especially with his straight punches.
Syawal told the father his next target is to join the Sukma as he wanted to follow in his father’s footsteps and become a successful boxer.
