KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 1 ― Malaysian sports may have been given the red card in 2015 but that does not mean that there are no good news at all.

Malaysia did well at the Singapore SEA Games by winning 62 gold medals and breaking the triple jump record and the 400m free style along the way.

Muhammad Hakimi Ismail ended a drought of 18 years by winning the triple jump gold medal with a leap of 16.76m while at the swimming pool, Welson Sim recorded a new SEA Games record in the 400m free style with a time of 3:53.97s.

Malaysia also won 52 gold medals at the Asean Para Games in Singapore and broke 12 new records in athletics, swimming and powerlifting.

In the Asean Schools Games in Brunei, Badrul Hisham Abdul Manap, 18, won the 100m sprint with a time of 10.29s on Nov 23 to erase the 17 year-old national 100m record of 10.30s held by Watson Nyambek from Sarawak since 1998.

Datuk Nicol Ann David had to relinquish her world number one spot to Raneem El Welily of Egypt after nine years as the world number one squash player.

This followed Nicol's failure to win several tournaments which offered world ranking points by the Professional Squash Association (PSA).

Datuk Lee Chong Wei returned from an eight month suspension for failing a dope test to boost his world ranking to 44th place.

However, his longtime ambition to become world champion was dashed on Aug 16 when he lost the final to Chen Long of China in Jakarta, Indonesia.

It was followed by exits in the Japan Open, Korean Open and the Denmark Open.

Chong Wei however, bounced back to win the French Open (October 25), China Open (November 15) and the Hong Kong Open (November 22) to rise to 5th in the BWF world ranking on December 17.

Malaysian hockey failed to qualify for the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games after losing at the quarter final stage of the World Hockey League in Antwerp, Belgium.

The junior team also failed to qualify for the Junior World Cup after failing to finish among the top four teams in the Junior Asian Cup.

The worst was reserved for the football team which saw Malaysia's world ranking drop from 154 early this year to 177 now.

The Harimau Malaya squad lost 0-10 and 1-2 to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) and again lost 0-6 twice to Palestine in the 2018 World Cup qualifiers.

FIFA fined the FAM 40,000 Swiss francs (RM180,000) and awarded a 3-0 win to Saudi Arabia for crowd trouble at the Shah Alam Stadium.

On the plus side, Johor Darul Ta'zim (JDT) won the AFC Cup 2015 after beating FC Istiklol of Tajikistan 1-0 on October 31.

Selangor, the most successful team in Malaysian football beat Kedah 2-0 to win the Malaysia Cup on Dec 12, thus ending a drought of 10 years without a major trophy.

The win was Selangor's 33rd Malaysia Cup victory. ― Bernama