THE Malaysian contingent edged closer towards the 27-medal target for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games after securing another two bronze medals from diving and athletics yesterday.

National diving queen Pandelela Rinong added a bronze to the Malaysian contingent’s medal tally from the women’s 10m platform while the women’s 4x100m quartet won an unexpected bronze medal in the 4x100m relay.

The women’s quartet comprising Azreen Nabila Alias, Zaidatul Husniah Zulkifli, Nur Afrina Batrisyia Mohamad Rizal and Shereen Samson Vallabouy, were promoted to third place (bronze) after the Bahrain quartet, who finished third initially, were disqualified for a lane infringement.

The national quartet clocked 45.01 seconds.

The men’s 4x100m quartet were however, not so lucky as Khairul Hafiz Jantan, Muhammad Arsyad Md Saat, Jonathan Nyepa and Muhammad Azeem Mohd Fahmi who had completed the race in fifth spot with a time of 39.19s, just 0.1s slower than the national record, were later disqualified for a lane infringement.

Technically, the Malaysian contingent require only one more medal to achieve the target with five days of competition remaining because squash is assured of at least three medals after three players marched into the semifinals.

However, the colour of the medals in squash will only be known after the semi-finals today or tomorrow, the date scheduled for the finals.

The three squash players who made it to the semis are Ng Eain Yow (men’s singles), S. Sivasangari (women’s singles) and Mohammad Syafiq Kamal-Aifa Azman (mixed doubles).

As of last night, Malaysia are in 15th in the medal standings with three gold, four silver and one bronze medals for a total of 23. Host China continued their dominance with 161 gold, 90 silver and 46 bronze, for a total of 297 medals.

Meanwhile, badminton medal hopes remain, with Ng Tze Yong and Lee Zii Jia spearheading the men’s singles charge. Last year’s men’s doubles world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik, national women’s no. 1 doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, Goh Jin Wei (women’s singles) and mixed doubles pairs Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie are also involved in the race for a quarter-final spot.

National athletes are in action today in equestrian, diving, archery, cycling (road race), kabbadi and cricket. – Bernama, October 4, 2023.