KL2017: Marang lad wants to make country proud

The 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games (KL2017) would be his second time in the biennial games but Muhammad Abdul Azim Othman, or fondly known as Azim, is readier than ever to make the country proud.

The 20-year old artistic gymnast who hails from Marang, Terengganu said though only his teammate Jeremiah Loo Phay Xing managed to clinch a silver medal in the 2015 Singapore SEA Games, Azim is optimistic he and his team would win medals of any colour this time around.

"Should I win later, I wish to decicate the medal to my mother and father, family, friends, coach and the Malaysian people who who had continuously given their support to us," he told Bernama after attending a training session at the Malaysian International Trade and Exhibition Centre (MITEC) here, today.

Azim said he would compete in five out of six events for the men's artistic gymnastics competition at the KL2017.

"I will compete in the floor exercise, pommel horse, vault, parallel bars and horizontal bars but not in the rings," he said.

Azim will aim for gold along with fellow gymnasts Jeremiah, Tan Fu Jie, Azroy Amierol Jaafar, Chau Jern Rong and Zul Bahrin Mat Asri in the men's event tomorrow at MITEC.

According to gymnastics team manager Azmi Hassan, Azim had the biggest potential among his teammates in the vault category.

"I could see Azim's potential in the vault event in terms of performing a perfect routine and not falling down. However, his biggest rival is Vietnam and it all boils down to who performs the most perfect routine on the day of the event," he said.

For men's artistic gymnastics coach Ng Shu Liang, he believed his team would do their utmost best considering the rigorous training that they had gone through for KL2017.

Shu Liang, whose brother is former 2006 Doha Asian Games silver medallist Shu Wai, added that he was not feeling pressured though they were competing on home ground.

Shu Liang also said their biggest contender was Vietnam as some of their gymnasts were Asian Games medallists and Olympians.

"But it does not make us feel down, even if they are world-class gymnasts, we just do what we have to do," he said.

-- BERNAMA