Body-builder grabs gold for Malaysia

National body-building icon Wong Ngai Hong ended the body-building events by grabbing the gold for the Malaysian contingent at the 27th SEA Games at the Myanmar Convention Centre Sunday.

Wong, 46, stole the jury's attention by beating the silver and bronze medalists Aung Swee Naing from Myanmar and Panupong Prateep from Thailand respectively in the 90kg category.

He also made a new record when he emerged as the first national athlete to win the gold in the event at the biennial games.

"I'm very excited to be the first body-building athlete in Malaysia to win the gold in the 'light heavy' category, that is, for big-sized athletes.

"I made preparations for six months for this category because the organisers did not offer the super heavyweight event, so I had to bring down my body weight and focus one hundred per cent during training.

On Saturday, another Malaysian body-building icon Sazali Samad won the silver in the 70kg event.

Team manager, Abdul Halim Budin said he was satisfied that the body-building squad achieved the target of one gold and one silver at the games.