Malaysian contingent continues to shine in Hanoi

HANOI: The national contingent continued to deliver the goods when they bagged three more gold medals yesterday - a day before the official opening ceremony of the 31st SEA Games today.

As such, Malaysia have now picked up nine golds, two silvers and six bronzes, so far, to put them in second position in the medal tally behind hosts Vietnam, whose haul is 10-7-9.

As expected, Malaysia, who are a regional powerhouse in diving, proved to be a class above when they added two more gold medals while pencak silat contributed one gold medal yesterday.

In yesterday's final diving event, national diving queen Datuk Pandelela Rinong and Nur Dhabitah Sabri, the country's first gold medallist here, wrapped up the proceedings for Malaysia to complete a clean sweep of all eight gold medals on offer in diving here.

The Pandelela-Nur Dhabitah combination came out tops in the women's 10-metre (m) platform synchronised at the Aquatic Sports Palace.

Earlier, national divers Muhammad Syafiq Puteh and Gabriel Gilbert Daim completed a 1-2 finish in the men's 3m springboard individual.

Muhammad Syafiq was imperious en route to accumulating an overall score of 381.35 points from six dives for his first individual triumph after winning the 3m springboard synchronised mixed gold with Jasmine Lai at the 2017 KL Games.

Meanwhile, Gabriel took silver with 375.30 points.

At the Bac Tu Liem Sporting Centre, national pencak silat exponents also did not disappoint when Mohd Taqiyuddin Hamid and Sazzlan Yuga defended the gold medal in the men's ganda (doubles) event.

The pair came out tops in the final after earning 9.950 points to beat Singaporean siblings Muhammad Hazim Mohammad Zaque and Muhammad Haziq Mohammad Zaque, who accumulated 9.905 points.

The pencak silat squad also presented Malaysia with three bronze medals through Luqman Laji in men's tunggal (singles); Nur Syazreena Malik-Nor Hamizah Abu Hassan in women's ganda; and Merrywati Manuil-Siti Nur Khairunnisa Hail-Fatin Ardani Zamri in women's regu.

Malaysia are set to bag two bronze medals in kickboxing after the country's two exponents lost their respective semi-finals at the Bacninh Gymnasium yesterday.

Mohamad Rifdean Masdor missed the chance to challenge for a top-two finish after losing 3-0 to Vietnam's Huynh Van Tuan in the men's full contact 51kg category.

Hayatun Najihin Radzuan also bowed out in the semi-finals of the women's low kick below 60kg category after going down 3-0 to Filipina Gina Iniong Araos.

The losing semi-finalists stand to get the bronze medal but it will only be officially added to the medal tally after the prize-giving ceremony.

Meanwhile, the Harimau Muda squad notched their second straight win in men's football after downing Laos 3-1 at the Thien Truong Stadium in Nam Dinh last night.

The success of the squad, under the guidance of head coach Brad Maloney, sees them top Group B with six points following their 2-1 victory over Thailand in their first match last Saturday (May 7).

Malaysia's hunt for gold is set to "pause temporarily" as no events will be contested today so as to make way for the official opening ceremony of the 31st SEA Games at the My Dinh Stadium tonight.

-- BERNAMA