After a brief pause in their chase for gold to make way for the official opening ceremony on Thursday, when no events were held, the Malaysian camp added two more gold medals yesterday through wushu.
The national exponents excelled en route to bagging two surprise gold medals as well as a silver in the taolu discipline on the first day of the wushu competition at the Cau Giay Gymnasium here.
The first gold came courtesy of Clement Ting in the men’s changquan event before Tan Zhi Yan added a second in men’s taijiquan for Malaysia’s 11th gold medal.
Meanwhile, Calvin Lee Wai Leong chipped in with a silver in the men’s nandao to wrap up an excellent day for the wushu camp.
At the Hanoi Sports Training and Competition Centre, Malaysian musclemen contributed one silver and one bronze in bodybuilding, which made a return after a lapse of nine years.
Azri Asmat Sefri won a surprise silver in the 55kg category while veteran Malvern Abdullah grabbed a bronze in the 65kg category.
In kurash, the national team delivered a bronze medal on the final day of the competition through 18-year-old Razlan Rozaidi in the men’s below 73kg category at the Hoai Duc Gymnasium today.
That was the national kurash team’s third bronze medal at the biennial Games, thus exceeding their two-bronze target.
Today’s haul of two golds, two silvers and a bronze enabled Malaysia to stay in second spot in the medal standings with a total collection of 11 golds, five silvers and 13 bronzes.
Vietnam continued to lead the medal tally with a 24-11-19 haul while Indonesia are third with 7-9-2.
Meanwhile, four Malaysian silat exponents confirmed their semi-final spots in the tanding (combat) event after disposing of their respective opponents in the last eight at the Bac Tu Liem Gymnasium.
Three-time world champion Al-Jufferi Jamari led the way for Malaysia when he made the semi-finals in the F-class (70-75kg).
Joining him in the last four are Khairi Adib Azhar in the men’s B-class (50-55kg), Hazim Amzad in the men’s C-class (55-60kg) and Ahmad Atif Irshad Ahmad Zahidi in the men’s D-class (60-65kg).
The focus tonight for Malaysia will be Harimau Muda’s Group B clash against Singapore in the men’s football at the Thien Truong Stadium in the Nam Dinh province, about 90km from here at 4pm local time (5pm Malaysian time).
Malaysia, who are trained by head coach Brad Maloney, can confirm a spot in the semi-finals with a win over Singapore, having earlier defeated Thailand 2-1 and Laos 3-1.