Lee Hup Wei barely broke a sweat in defending his gold medal at the National Stadium in Vientiane yesterday but there was heartbreak for Noraseela Khalid, who was pipped on the line in the women’s 400m.

Zafril Zuslaini sprang a surprise with victory in the men’s 400m but it was not enough to prevent Malaysia’s worst showing in athletics in 34 years.

Not since the four-gold haul in 1975 in Jakarta has Malaysian athletics delivered less than seven gold medals while the six gold won here also fell short of the Malaysian Amateur Athletic Union’s target of eight.

Roslinda won the women’s pole vault in a new Sea Games record of 4.15m and needed only three vaults to secure gold after Vietnam’s silver medallist Le Thi Phuong managed to clear only 3.90m.

Despite failing at her first attempt at 3.90 — her opening height — Roslinda was hardly challenged in winning her third consecutive Sea Games gold.

“I was a little nervous at first after missing that one but I managed to calm myself. The Vietnamese girl appeared to be very confident, probably boosted by the fact that I only did 3.60m at the Asian Championships.

“But it was rainy and windy there while the hot condition here is more suited to me. I’m happy to have also got the Games record but I had also hoped to break my national record (4.40m).

“Anyway there is plenty to look forward to next year since I have already qualified for both the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games.

“But I’ll need higher level competitions to prepare for those big events, not competitions like this where the motivation to go higher once you’ve won is hard to find,” said Roslinda, 27, whose best this year remains at 4.35m.

Hup Wei, too, did not need to be at his best as he won his second straight high jump gold with a 2.18m effort long after his challengers fell by the wayside.

“I was going after the Games record (2.24m) but I was having some trouble with my run-up today (yesterday). My technique was fine so I was confident of winning,” said Hup Wei, 22.

Noraseela, who won the 400m hurdles on Sunday, was denied a double after leading the 400m final with just 30 metres to go only to be edged near the finish by Thailand’s Trewadee Yongphan and Kay Khine Lwin of Myanmar.

Trewadee won in 54.16 seconds, ahead of Kay Khine Lwin (54.25) while Noraseela was left with the bronze after timing 54.32.

Cramps set in as Noraseela, 30, headed for the finish and she nearly swayed into the lane on her right as she struggled home.

“I ran too fast for the first 300 metres and used the wrong strategy. I felt fine with 100m to go but all of sudden I felt stiff and began cramping.
“I’m not used to running 400m flat but it’s still so frustrating to miss out on gold. It’s been a long year and this was my 30th race I think in all events. I’m just glad to have gotten through the year injury-free,” said Noraseela.

Malaysia were also edged out for gold in the men’s 1,500m when Vietnam’s Nguyen Dih Cuong completed a middle-distance double by winning in 3:46.58.

Jironi Riduan was again left with the silver medal after being overtaken in the home straight for the second time although he did clock a personal best of 3:47.34 while M. Vadivellan, who paced Jironi over the first two laps, earned bronze in 3:48.99.

The women’s 4×100m quartet finished fourth in 45.69 as Thailand won gold in 44.54 to finish top of the athletics medal tally with 13 gold, 20 silver and 14 bronze.

Malaysia ended fifth with a haul of 6-6-4 behind Indonesia (7-7-7), Vietnam (7-4-10) and Philippines (7-2-4).

From Farhanah Azmi

VIENTIANE, Dec 17 (Bernama) — National women’s pole vaulter Roslinda Samsu created history when she recorded a hat-trick by defending her gold medal for the third time in a row in her favourite event.

She also set a new SEA Games record when she exceeded the height of 4.15 metres, erasing her own record of 4.10 metres in Manila in 2005, although the record could not beat her national record of 4.40 metres.

“I tried to set a better record but here there are no strong rivals and what I need now is to compete in a more competitive game be it local or overseas.

“It is important for me to set a better record especially when I am preparing for the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games,” said the 27-year-old athlete from Kuala Nerang, Kedah.

Another national pole vaulter Kathleen Ong was only able to settle for a fifth spot with a height of 3.60 metres.

National high-jumper Lee Hup Wei had no problem to defend his title with a record of 2.18 metres but failed to live up to his own personal record of 2.27 metres set in the China Open last year.

“I did not have the intention to set a new national record. Here, I tried to set a new championship record but my attempt failed as there were not many rivals,” he said.

Meanwhile, Mohd Zafril Zuslaini won the men’s 400m race with a record of 47.11s pushing aside his main rival Heru Astriyanto from Indonesia and Jukkatip Pojaroen from Thailand, who respectively clocked 47.35s and 47.53s.

Noraseela Khalid, however, failed in her first attempt to contribute a gold medal for the women’s 400m event and only managed to bring home the bronze while 1,500m contributed a silver and a bronze each through Mohd Jironi Riduan and M. Vadivellan.

After four days of competition at the Laos SEA Games, the national athletics squad had ended the competition in fifth place by winning six gold medals, six silver and four bronze.

Apart from that, the national athletics squad successfully set two new championship records namely through Roslinda and Tan Song Hwa in women’s hammer throw event.

The medal tally achieved at the games was far off the target set by the Malaysian Amateur Athletics Union original target of eight gold medals here.

Thailand had dominated the athletics events with 14 gold, 20 silver and 14 bronze.

– BERNAMA

GOLD (Four)

Cheng Chu Sian (archery, men’s 70m recurve)
Teoh Boon Lim (athletics, men’s 20km walk)
Tang Song Hwa (athletics, women’s hammer)
Diana Bong (wushu, women’s nanquan combined)

SILVER (Two)

S. Anbarasi (archery, women’s 70m recurve)
Md Hadafi Jaafar, Muhd Nurrahimin Abdul Halim (shooting, men’s 50m rifle 3-position team)

BRONZE (Ten)

Noor Aziera Taip (archery, women’s 70m recurve)
Arif Farhan Ibrahim Putrab (archery, men’s 70m recurve)
Mohd Ali Abdul Karim (boxing, men’s bantamweight, 54kg)
Siti Rahimah Nasir (silat, women’s Class E, 65-70kg)
Noor Farahana Ismail (silat, women’s Class A, 45-50kg)
Malini Mohd (silat, women’s Class B, 50-55kg)
Shuhairi Chin (silat, men’s Class B, 50-55kg)
Mohd Islahidayat (silat, men’s Class C, 55-60kg)
Beh Lee Wei (table tennis, women’s singles)
Men’s regu (sepaktakraw)

MALAYSIAN Amateur Athletics Union (MAAU) deputy president Karim Ibrahim feels the sport is still on course to deliver eight gold medals despite the failure of the men’s 4×400m team to retain the title on Monday.

The quartet of Mohd Zaiful Zainal Abidin, Idris Zakaria, P. Yuvaraj and Zafril Zuslaini finished second behind Thailand.

With two days of athletics competition remaining, Malaysia have won three gold medals through Noraseela Khalid (women’s 400m hurdles), Teoh Boon Lim (men’s 20km walk) and Tan Song Hwa (women’s hammer).

But Karim, who is also the MAAU coaching committee chairman, feels that the team can still better the haul of seven gold medals achieved in Korat two years ago.

“There is no change from our target of winning eight gold medals even though the relay team failed on Monday,” he said.

“I feel the men’s 1,500m (tomorrow) can compensate for the defeat as we have two strong runners (M. Vadivellan and Mohd Jironi Riduan) for the event.

“The bulk of the gold medals will come on the final day (tomorrow), when most of our favourites will be competing.”

Besides Vadivellan and Mohd Jironi, Malaysia’s other gold medal contenders who will see action tomorrow are Lee Hup Wei (men’s high jump), Roslinda Samsu (women’s pole vault) and Noraseela (women’s 400m).

Today, past Games champions Mohd Robani Hassan (2005 Manila) and Rayzam Shah Wan Sofian (2007 Korat) are the best bets to secure a gold in the men’s 110m hurdles.

Meanwhile, Karim was upset over Mohd Zaiful Zainal Abidin’s displeasure and outburst after only finding out in Vientiane that he will not feature in the men’s 400m race.

Teenager Yuvaraj has been selected to race alongside Zafril in the event tomorrow.

“None of the 400m runners qualified on merit for the event. How can Zaiful claim that he was dropped when he did not beat the qualifying mark in the first place?’ said Karim.

“The national coaches selected the best two runners for the event based on current form, which is Zafril and Yuvaraj.

“Zaiful was among the top two in the country after the Malaysian Open (in October) but his form dipped after that when he suffered a heel injury. We held a special trial just before coming to Vientiane to determine the best two runners and Zaiful lost to Yuvaraj by a considerable margin.

A DOGGED determination to get her hands on a SEA Games medal reaped extra rewards for hammer thrower Tan Song Hwa.