PALEMBANG, Dec 21 — Shuttlers Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin (men’s singles) and Mohd Lutfi Zaim Abd Khalid-Chow Mei Kuan (mixed doubles) helped push Malaysia’s gold medal tally to 40 in the 17th Asean University Games here, after they won their respective finals.
Their win took Malaysia’s haul to 40 gold medals, 43 silver and 49 bronze, achieving the target set for the Malaysians at the AUG, which ends today.
Chef de mission Datuk Prof Dr Abdullah Mohd Said said though he was relieved to have achieved the 40-gold-medal target, he personally was not satisfied with the performance of some sports that were expected to deliver the goods, especially sepak takraw, taekwondo and silat.
“I am happy that the Malaysian contingent achieved the target set for the AUG but some sports did not live up to expectations,” he told reporters here today.
Sports that came to the rescue were badminton, which delivered two gold medals. Fencing, tennis and table tennis contributed one each.
Abdullah said that aquatics with 14 gold was the highest contributor of gold medals, although the sport did not match the 21-gold medal feat in the previous edition hosted by Laos in 2012.
Malaysia sent a contingent comprising 322 athletes and 77 officials who competed in 20 sports. — Bernama
