e wrong step and a sure gold was lost

ONE WRONG step was all it took SEA Games gold medallist Shalina Abdul Ghafar and Noorsyahidda Wafi Abdul Sani to lose the gold medal in the women's silat seni doubles at the Penang International Sport Arena in Relau yesterday.

Shalina and Noorsyahidda were doing well in their doubles event until the final moment when they wrong-stepped their move and that was it.

Vietnamese Nguyen Hong Nhung and Nguyen Hai Yen were duly awarded the gold medal, winning by a mere two points.

The Vietnamese were given 565 points while the two Malaysians garnered 563.

But the most painful part of it must have been the fact that the two Vietnamese were the ones whom Shalina and Noorsyahidda had beaten last year in the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games for the gold medal.

Hence, their confidence of winning the gold medal again.

But that was until they mis-timed their movement and made that "fatal" step.

Said Shalina later: "We are disappointed and sad.

"We wanted to the gold medal but won the silver instead." Indonesia's Rida Malinda and Yuliana Fatimah finished with a score of 550 to win the bronze medal.

But then, Shalina and Noorsyahidda were not the only "losers" in the Malaysian squad.

The trios comprising Rina Juliana, Helena Nama and Norshaniza Azizan could only finish with a bronze medal.

The worst was they had to lose out on countback to Suryani, Pudji Dwi Riyanti and Mila Lusiana of Indonesia, after having tied at 459 points.

Nong Nhung and Hai Yen went on to put Vietnam in the lead in the medal count when they bagged their second gold in the trios, amassing 463 points.

Just like the women, the men also failed to produce the desired results.

Of the four semifinalists, only Mohd Zuber Ismail of the Class G silat olahraga, made it as the others bowed out.

Mohd Zuber thrashed his British opponent 5-0.

The three who could not proceed beyond the semifinals were Emy Latif, Abang Erdie Fauzerul Abang Fauzan and Azhar Ahmad.

Emy lost to Rodelyn Arlante of the Philippines 3-2 in the women's Class D while Abanf Erdie and Azhar were knocked out in the Class A and Class H.

Abang Erdie was defeated by Indonesia's Abdul Karim 5-0 while Azhar went down 3-2 to Mohd Imran Abdul Rahman of Singapore..

Written by K. KANDIAH
Sourced from http://www.accessmylibrary.com/coms2/summary_0286-27032628_ITM