PHNOM PENH: The national men’s obstacle race quartet’s dream of making history by winning a gold medal fell short after losing to the Philippines in the team relay final at the Chroy Changvar Convention Centre here, this morning.
The quartet consisting of Ghalib Mohamad Azimi, Mohd Redha Rozlan, Nuur Hafis Said Alwi and Yoong Wei Theng had to settle for silver with a time of 25.15 seconds (s).
The Philippines, who overtook Malaysia in the final moments of the competition, recorded a time of 24.47s while Indonesia and Laos shared the bronze after posting 31.27s and 34.11s respectively in another race.
Although the result was not in Malaysia’s favour, Mohd Redha as the team leader said they had given their best after sacrificing time and energy in an effort to make history by winning gold.
“Thanks to my teammates, we have worked hard by sacrificing fasting time with our families when we trained for three weeks in Manila and then came about a week early here, Raya (Aidilfitri) was just a small celebration for us.
“For today’s race I am happy because we have given everything but here and there there were a few hiccups but it’s okay maybe another SEA Games we will improve to get gold,“ he said when met by the Malaysian media after the final.
Commenting further, Mohd Redha said the team expects support from outside parties to provide a complete set of competition obstacles for training purposes so as to be able to improve their performance in the future.
He is optimistic that Malaysia will be able to win the first gold in the sport at the next edition of the SEA Games if they get help in the near future.
“So far we lack training facilities, we only train in the gym where 60 percent simulation is the same as here. So we hope that any party or the KBS (Ministry of Youth and Sports) itself will help provide a set of obstacles similar to what the Philippines have,“ said the 35-year-old.
For the record, this is Mohd Redha’s third appearance at the SEA Games after winning silver in the artificial wall climbing event at the 2011 edition in Palembang, Indonesia before winning three silvers in obstacle races in Manila, Philippines in 2019.
Meanwhile, in the women’s team relay competition, Malaysia won bronze together with Cambodia while gold was won by the Philippines and silver by Indonesia. - Bernama
