Yong Back For SEA Games

JOHOR BAHARU, Sept 26 (Bernama) -- Five years after he successfully battled the deadly cancer, Yong Kein Foot, is back in the SEA Games squad again.

There was a period in Kein Foot's life when everything seemed hopeless after he was diagnosed with testicles cancer but thanks to the National Sports Council's help he was operated on and recovered.

That was in 2002 just before the Pusan Asian Games where the 39-year-old Pontian-born Kein Foot was a member of the National snooker squad.

But his Asian Games dream was shattered and instead he had to endure chemotherapy and the subsequent recuperation period before he could make a return.

And on Monday, his name was accepted by the Olympic Council of Malaysia together with Moh Keen Ho and Thor Chuan Leong for the Korat Sea Games snooker squad.

"It's nice to be back again representing the country. Of course, I had suffered so much when I was diagnosed with cancer but the treatment I had and the help given to me by the NSC made me more determined to do well at the snooker table again," said Kein Foot.

The last time he represented the country was in the 1995 SEA Games in Chiangmai where he was a member of the snooker gold medal winning team together with Sam Chong and Liew Kit Fatt beating Thailand 2-1 in the final.

And his recent form in the local tournament since last year has been so impressive that the Malaysian Snooker and Billiards Federation (MSBF) drafted him into the National training squad four months ago.

"Kein Foot has all the international experience and his current form suggest that he can provide the depth we needed for the assault at the gold medals in Korat," said MSBF secretary Melvin Chia.

Kein Foot together with Keen Ho, the former Asian Junior champion and a recent quarter-finalist at the World Junior Meet in India, will play in the singles and form the doubles combination.

-- BERNAMA