Medal Trail Trickles Towards Half-way Mark

KORAT, Dec 11 (Bernama) -- Seven gold medals won, numerous others missed and misfortunes summed up the performances of the Malaysian contingent as the medal trail trickled towards the half-way mark after today's competitions.

With seven won today from athletics (2), swimming (2), cycling (1), bowling (1), archery (1), Malaysia's overall medal tally stood at 31 gold, 29 silver and 57 bronze, one short of the half-way mark of the 64-gold target.

In athletics, three gold medals slipped from their grasp as Ngew Sin Mei saw the women's triple jump gold snatched from right under her nose by Thailand's Thitima Muangjan on her very last jump.

Sin Mei who leapt 13.75m was almost sure of the gold as the Thai jumper had faltered all her five previous jumps, but in her very last attempt, cleared 13.85m to win the gold.

M. Vadivellan who was leading the pack in the men's 1,500m lost out in the last 20m to Vietnam's Nguyen Dinh Cuong and settled for the silver while Muhamad Zaiful Zainal Abidin also had a shot at gold in the men's 400m up to the 350m stage but ended in third place behind Julius Felicisimo of the Philippines and Jukkatip Pojaroen of Thailand.

In swimming, Siow Yi Ting who was tipped to win the 400m individual medley, slipped to silver medal position while Daniel Bego finished with a bronze in the men's 200m Butterfly.

In Bangkok, the men's team, expected to sweep the gold in the Team of Fives event, finished with a silver and continued their drought for a gold medal while the women have so far come good with a three-gold feat.

There were also missed gold stories in cycling as Uracca Leow failed to win the women's Individual Pursuit while Amir Mustafa Rusli suffered a similar fortune in the men's Individual Pursuit.

The men's rugby team, unbeaten after two matches and touted as a gold medal prospect blew their chances after losing to lowly-ranked Philippines in the semi-finals.

Tomorrow, 68 gold medals are at stake, the single most highest number of gold medals offered for the Games, which offers a total of 475 gold medals.

With swimming and athletics closing their doors, all attention will now be on combat sports like karate-do and taekwondo, which offer eight and six gold respectively, while prospects for medals remain intact in archery, cycling, diving, equestrian, bowling and pencak silat.

-- BERNAMA