MANILA, Dec 1 — Olympian Julian Yee performed a rock and roll skate routine to retain his SEA Games men’s figure skating gold medal at the SM Megamall Ice Skating Rink here today, handing Malaysia its fourth gold of the Games so far.
Dressed in black pants with a black and white camouflage round neck, the Kuala Lumpur-born Yee outperformed his opponents with magnificent spins, jumps and tricks to finish top after scoring 139.27 points in the free skating, today.
The 22-year-old, who took the lead after gaining 63.4 points in the short program on Friday, secured the gold with 202.62 points in total.
The winner is decided based on highest points from both programs.
Home nation skater, Christopher Caluza (180.22 points) and Thailand’s Micah Kai Lynette (174.06 points) finished second and third respectively.
Opting out of slow and classical tracks, Julian choose to gain everyone’s attention by performing with tunes by Kings and Queens, AC/DC and Seven Nation Army in the four-minute free skating routine.
“I tried to engage more with the audience to get everyone involved and feel like they’re skating together with me. So I tried to (focus more) on the performance than the skating.
“I am quite surprised everyone cheered for me, we expect people to support home athletes, but in a way, in figure skating, everyone supports each other because we are all growing together as a region,” he told reporters.
Julian, who is the first ever Malaysian skater to compete at the Winter Olympics after his successful debut at the 2018 PyeongChang Games, hopes his success will attract and gain the attention of more Malaysians to get involved in winter sports such as ice skating, figure skating and ice hockey to eventually produce world class skaters.
Earlier in the women’s event, Aina Sorfina Mohd Aminudin (85.24 points) and Chew Sze Chyi (71.76) finished in sixth and ninth place respectively.
2017 KL Games bronze medallist, Chloe Xuanling Ing from Singapore claimed the gold with 152.67 points , while host nation skater Alisson Krystle Perticheto (132.76) and Savika Refa Zahira of Indonesia (100.8) took home the silver and bronze. — Bernama
