Andre managed to record a distance of 16.06m on the fifth attempt, confirming his second consecutive gold in the event at the Morodok Techo National Stadium today.

The silver medal was won by the Philippines’ Ronnie Auxilio Mapilay (15.74m) while his teammate, Mark Harry Aloto Diones (15.70m) took the bronze.

The athlete from Sabah admitted that he was relieved to be able to win gold even though he had only just started jumping yesterday after undergoing the rehabilitation process following his injury two weeks ago.

“For almost two weeks I didn’t work on any jumping technique and had to rest for a while to recover my heel, there was some pressure, not from the opponents but pressure to fight the injury.

“Before this, I only trained in the gymnasium, but yesterday I just started jumping to get the feel and rhythm before competing today,” he told reporters here.

Although he did not succeed in breaking the record of 16.77m set by Hakimi Ismail in the 2017 edition in Kuala Lumpur, Andre was happy that the triple jump gold still remains in Malaysia’s hands since the 2015 edition in Singapore.

Another national representative, Izzul Haniff Mohd Raffi, finished the competition in seventh place with a jump of 15.38m.

Meanwhile, Wan Muhammad Fazri Wan Zahari bagged the bronze in the men’s 800m event clocking a time of 1:53.86s, with the host country’s Chhun Bunthorn (1:52.91s) winning the gold and Duc Phuoc Luong from Vietnam (1:53.34s) taking the silver.

The women’s category saw two national athletes, Savinder Kaur Jogindr Singh (2:15.77s) and Hizillawanty Jamain (2:16.92s) finish sixth and seventh respectively.

Vietnamese athlete Nguyen Thi Thu Ha (2:08.55s) grabbed the gold, while her compatriot Thi Ngan Bui (2:08.96s) bagged the silver. The bronze went to Singaporean, Chui Ling Goh (2:09.15s).