Tokyo Olympics: Malaysia banking on last five athletes to achieve medal target

TOKYO: Day 11 of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics ended with no Malaysian athlete in action today.

This was after the final two races of the women's International 470 sailing event, which features Malaysia's Nuraisyah Jamil and Juni Karimah Noor Jamal, were postponed to Tuesday (Aug 3) due to a lack of wind at the Enoshima Yacht Harbour.

Race Nine and Race 10 were earlier scheduled to begin at 12.05 pm local time (11.05 am Malaysian time).

After eight races, Nuraisyah-Juni are 20th out of 21 sailors with 130 net points and out of medal contention, leaving Malaysia's quest to achieve the three-medal target at the Tokyo Olympics to the last five athletes.

They are Pandelela Rinong and Cheong Jun Hoong (women's diving); Kelly Tan (women's golf); as well as Datuk Azizulhasni Awang and Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom (men's track cycling).

Malaysia's first Tokyo Olympic medal - a bronze - is already in hand courtesy of men's doubles shuttlers Aaron Chia-Wooi Yik's 17-21, 21-17, 21-14 win over Indonesians Mohammad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan in the third-fourth placing match at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza on Saturday (July 31).

With Pandelela-Leong Mun Yee failing to deliver a medal after placing eighth in the women's 10m platform synchronised event on July 27, Malaysian sports fans will be hoping that Pandelela will come good in the individual event.

The Sarawak-born Pandelela and Jun Hoong will compete in the women's 10m platform individual preliminaries on Wednesday (Aug 4).

But it is Azizulhasni, who created history when he became the first Malaysian track cyclist to win a medal after bagging a bronze in keirin at the 2016 Rio edition, that everyone is counting on to deliver not just any medal, but the gold at the Tokyo Olympics.

Azizulhasni, who will compete in the keirin and sprint events in Tokyo, certainly knows what it takes to bounce back from not winning the gold.

He did, after all, create a sensation when he emerged as the keirin world champion in Hong Kong in 2017 after ending up with silver in 2010 and bronze in 2015 and 2016.

Hopes are high that young rider Muhammad Shah Firdaus, who will also compete in both the keirin and sprint events here, would also be able to contribute a medal when the track cycling event begins with the preliminaries at the Izu Velodrome in Shizuoka.

The preliminary rounds for the sprint event will be held on Wednesday (Aug 4) and that for keirin on Saturday (Aug 7).

Rising star Muhammad Shah Firdaus is definitely a medal contender. However, it is not impossible for him to create a shock and contribute a gold medal for Malaysia in the Tokyo Olympics.

He too has done it before in several competitions previously, among them the Australian National Track Cycling Championships and the Victoria Keirin Championship where he outshone the more illustrious Azizulhasni to emerge champion.

As for Kelly, she is set to face a tough task trying to finish among the leading bunch, let alone win a medal, when the women's individual golf competition tees off at the Kasumigaseki Country Club on Wednesday (Aug 4).

Prior to the Games, several athletes touted to be medal contenders in the Tokyo Olympics couldn't deliver the goods, including the likes of men's singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia, who fell in the round of 16 to eventual runner-up Chen Long, and the diving combination of Pandelela-Mun Yee.

So, can the last five athletes do Malaysia proud before the curtain comes down on the Tokyo Olympics on Sunday (Aug 8)?

Stay tuned!

-- BERNAMA