THE STAR. TUESDAY 17 APRIL 2018 Sport 41 MALAYSIA WON 7 GOLDS~ 5 SILVERS AND Top 12,' but it's 12 BRONZES IN GOLD COAST alright mate Now, it's timeto focus on Asian- Games No easy feat: Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli (centre) became the second Malaysian woman sprinter. after G. Shanti to reach the 100m semi-finals at the Commonwealth Games .. - BV RAJES PAUL be positive. the final. These. athletes instead were Zaidatul followed in G. Shanti's, PETALING JAVA: A top 10 finish is breaking records, upsetting world footsteps by reaching the women's not possible for Malaysia. beaters, winning respect and set- 100m semi-finals. - > Amy Kwan Diet Weng But that's alright mate, as the ath- ting new personal best - at least a - Shah Firdaus defeated Australia's > Amy Kwan DietWeng (individual letes showed many positives at the handful of them. king of sprint Matt Glaetzer in his all-around) 28th Commonwealth in Gold Coast. Special mention must go to own backyard. The Aussies could > Koi SieVan (ribbon) -Malaysia finished 12th with a 22-year-old cyclist Muhd Shah not accept it -:-3S they had their eyes medal haul of 7-5-12 - that's one Firdaus Sahrom, squash player set on Azizulhasni Awang but Shah out of 81 representatives, seven And there are athletes who were goldmedal more than the Glasgow Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan, sprinter -Firdaus came from nowhere to won medals and three - Jian Han just completely out of depth. Games four years ago. Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli, paddlers steal the show: and weightlifters Mohd Fazrul _ Sports such as badminton, shoot- The seven golds came from Ho Ying-Karen Lyne and swimmer The Melbourne-based Shah Azrie Mohdad and SitiAisyah Rosli ing, diving and athletics should be weightlifting (2),badminton (2), div- Tern [ian Han for making heads Firdaus eventually finished fourth - set new national records ... on the lookout for new stars to take ing (1),lawn bowls (1) and rhythmic turn with their unexpected show of - but what he learnt from the Games Inspired by some of these strong over. from some of their seasoned gymnastics (1). class in their respective fields. was invaluable. - _ showing, including Lee Chong Wei's campaigners. A total of 99 men and 76 women --Nafiizwan andHo Ving-Karen "It showed that even a kampung gold-medal feat in ruthless fashion There are just four more months competed but none were hauled up ~bagged their sports first individual boy like me can stand tall against on Sunday, many athletes have before the Indonesia Asian Games. for keeping late nights in the land of medal in squash (men's singles) and the giants of cycling: It will only returned home with renewed confi- It's not too far away and all sports Surfers Paradise on their event days. table tennis (women's doubles) spur me to achieve greater success," dence and determined to come need to make quick reviews, adjust- None broke the rules or showed respectively' while [ian Han broke said Shah Firdaus. back for another shot at stardom at ments, self-checks and improve- poor sportsmanship = and let's hope former top backstroker Alex Urn Podium Programme athletes did. .the 2022 Birmingham Games. ment to put another solid showing to that none of the random dope tests Keng Liars longstanding record in -better but the Rita Juara and back- But there have been bitter disap- underline progress. Only then, they carried out during the Games will _ the men's sOm backstroke to reach up team should not be ignored as pointments and near misses too. can nail a perfectlO for-good effort..