TAEKWONDO: Malaysian juniors all fired up

S. Selvam
Aug 18

DESPITE lacking international exposure, Malaysia’s 14-member team to the Asian Junior Taekwondo Championships are fired-up to better the country’s record in the meet when the competition gets underway in Almaty, Kazakhstan tomorrow.
Malaysia’s best performance was one silver and one bronze medal achieved in the 2003 edition in Vietnam.

And with Ryan Chong and Koh Jen Li, silver and bronze medallists respectively in the last meet still around, head coach K.M. Rajendran believes the team are capable of rising to the occasion.

"Our aim is to better our achievement in this tournament. In the first championships (in 2001), we returned with three bronze medals and in the last edition, we got one silver and one bronze. This year, we want to improve on that," said Rajendran after the flag handing-over ceremony at the Bukit Jalil Sports School in Bukit Jalil yesterday.

Malaysia’s contingent to the three-day Championships comprise students from the BJSS.

The Education Ministry’s Physical Education and Sports Department’s director of policy and sports development Jalaluddin Othman handed the flag to team manager Dom Amy Hussain.

Also present at the ceremony were BJSS senior assistant (student affairs) Suhaimi Abdullah and assistant coach Mohamed Azlan Abdullah.

"We are banking on Ryan and Jen Li to lead the way as they were both medallists in the last championships," added Rajendran.

"In fact, hopefully, Ryan will become the first Malaysian to win an Asian junior taekwondo title as he has shown greater maturity and experience in training.

"However, the only setback is the lack of international exposure and competitive matches.

"To date, they have only competed in the National Youth Championships, the Selangor Open and International Clubs Championships in Genting Highlands.

"But the students have vowed to put up a strong display and we are optimistic of a good outing."

The squad left for Kazakhstan last night.

THE SQUAD — Boys: B. Sathiyswaran (finweight), Mohamed Haziq Hazwan (flyweight), Ryan Chong (featherweight), Abdul Majid Mohd (welterweight), Jeffrey Kiang (light-middleweight), Nicholas Nathan (middleweight), T. Janagaraj (light-heavyweight).

Girls: Tang Meng Poh (finweight), Wan Nur Latifah Wan Mohd Yussof (flyweight), Nurul Asfahlina Mohamed Johari (flyweight), Koh Jen Li (featherweight), Erni Syazwani Azman (lightweight), Nurul Afiqah Harun (welterweight), Norazlinda Mohamed Johari (light-middleweight).


Source from http://www.nst.com.my