Shalin Zulkifli sizzles as Malaysia nudge up to 67 gold

KUALA LUMPUR: Bowling icon Shalin Zulkifli captured the women's Masters gold in a nail-biting final as Malaysia bagged four more gold to maintain their tempo and top spot with an overall 67 in the 29th SEA Games by evening today.
The 39-year-old veteran dug into her experience to edge Indonesia's Tanya Roumimper 223-222 for her third gold in this Games applauded by a rapturous crowd at the Sunway Megalanes after Malaysia had taken two more titles from lawn bowls and another from silat.
On the medals board, Vietnam remain second overall with 41 gold, five ahead of third-placed Singapore. 2015 overall champions Thailand are fourth with 31 followed by Indonesia 19, the Philippines 15, Myanmar six and Cambodia one.
The national team swept the lawn bowls men's and women's triples beating Brunei 19-9 and the Philippines 19-11 respectively to bag three of four gold contested since yesterday and Malaysia are the favourites for the pairs and singles contests next.
Silat exponents Nur Syazreen A Malik and Nor Hamizah Abu Hassan clinched the women's ganda event with Singapore taking silver and Indonesia bronze. Malaysia captured the men's ganda title yesterday.

Games organiser MASOC announced a change of venue for silat from the Kuala Lumpur Convention Centre to the larger 3,000-capacity Jugra Stadium to accommodate the hordes of fans who have turned to watch the sport that has 20 gold at stake, the third highest after athletics and swimming.
On the penultimate day of athletics, Vietnamese woman sprinter Le Tu Chinh completed a treble when she anchored her team to the gold in the 4x100m after her sweep of the sprints.
Malaysia arrived fourth in both the men's and women's 4x100m relays but the men's quartet broke the national record with a time of 39.27s despite the absence of 100m gold medallist Khairul Hafiz Jantan who is nursing a hamstring injury.
Two gold winners were declared in the women's high jump that was completed yesterday with all three top finishers clearing 1.83m. In the results announced today, Vietnam's Duong Thi Viet An and Singapore's Michelle Sng shared the gold and the bronze went to Malaysia's Yeap Sean Yee on countback.
It is the second time a double gold was awarded in the Games. The artistic gymnastics pommel horse final had two winners on same points, Tan Fu Jie and Jeremiah Loo for Malaysia.
Another 51 gold will be decided tomorrow which will see the close of the swimming, athletics, basketball, golf, shooting, table tennis and tennis competitions. — Bernama