Flawless Qabil leads team to showjumping gold

Qabil Ambak won his third gold of the Games when he gave an inspired performance to lead the showjumping team.

QABIL Ambak Mahammad Fathil gave a flawless performance as he led Malaysia to the team showjumping gold at Horseshoe Point in Pattaya City yesterday.

It was Qabil's third gold of this Games and his eighth overall as he rode a perfect round by not registering a single penalty point on his horse Parvina while simultaneously qualifying for tomorrow's individual final.

Qabil was ably supported by Syed Omar Al Mohdzar (four penalties), Quzier Ambak Mahammad Fathil (eight) and debutante Syazna Leena Zulhasnan (16) as Malaysia won with a total of 12 penalty points.

Thailand took silver on 18 points but defending champions the Philippines were denied bronze despite finishing third on 100 points since only three teams competed, thus no bronze was awarded.

"It was quite a close fight with Thailand in the first two rotations but we all rode great, my teammates did very well and we eventually managed to pull away from the Thais," said Qabil.
Qabil now turns his attention to defending his individual showjumping gold medal as he looks to repeat his four-gold feat of the 2001 Kuala Lumpur Sea Games.

"I'm so excited just having won three here but I am hoping to get another one on Wednesday (tomorrow). There was a bit of pressure on us today (yesterday) since we were hoping to regain the team gold for Malaysia but I will be riding Parvina again to win the individual gold," said Qabil, who will be joined by Syed Omar in the final.

The equestrian team, who had set out to win two gold, have already surpassed that target after winning three gold - the dressage team and individual gold in addition to the team showjumping title - and one silver through Quzandria Nur Mahammad Fathil in the dressage individual.

NST