PETANQUE KEEPS MALAYSIAN CONTINGENT'S GOLD HAUL GROWING

From Nurul Izzati Mansor

SURABAYA, June 29 (Bernama) -- The national petanque camp saved the Malaysian contingent from coming out without a gold medal on the fourth day of the ASEAN University Games (AUG) 2024 when it contributed a gold in the mixed triple event today.

In the final which took place at the Petanque Court of the State University of Surabaya (UNESA) here saw the trio of Nur Asyikin Roslan, Sharifah Afiqah Farzana Syed Ali and Mohamad Muqri Arif Mohamad Sapiny grabbed the gold medal after defeating the Thai team 15-5.

However, at the Indonesian National Sports Committee (KONI) swimming pool, the gold rush stopped when the swimming camp could only muster silver through Terence Ng Shin Jian in the men's 200 metres (m) freestyle in 1 minute 51.29 seconds (s).

The gold and bronze medals respectively went to Thai swimmer Kanteemool Tonnam (1:50.98s) and compatriot Tan Khai Xin (1:51.70).

Another national swimmer Hii Puong Weii also contributed a silver medal in the men's 200m individual medley with a time of 2:06.17s after he won bronze in the men's 100m breaststroke with a time of 1:04.47s.

The men's 4x100m freestyle squad also took home a silver with in 3:29.53s, while the women's 200m medley event won a bronze through Christy Teh Xing Ti in 2:30.60s.

In the meantime, the judo squad won the silver medal through the team event after emerging as the second best team in the round robin competition.

In the first match of the round, Malaysia, lost to hosts Indonesia, 1-4 before coming back to defeat Singapore 4-1 in the second match and grab the silver medal.

The Malaysian contingent also won bronze in the men's team badminton event defeating Singapore 3-0 in the third and fourth place decider at the Graha Cakrawala Convention Center, Universitas Malang.

Earlier, the women's badminton squad had to settle for silver after losing to Thailand 0-3 in the final action this morning.

For the fifth day tomorrow, the focus of Malaysia's medals will be on petanque and swimming squads besides the futsal camp to win the country's gold medal.

Malaysia fell to third place in the medal tally with 11 gold medals, 14 silver medals and 19 bronze medals behind second-placed Thailand and Indonesia at the top of the medal tally.

-- BERNAMA