06 March 2007

HIGH HOPES PLACED ON JUNIOR SILAT EXPONENTS COMPETING IN WORLD MEET

JOHOR BAHARU, March 6 (Bernama) -- The Malaysian challenge at the 2nd World Junior Silat Championship in Singapore lies on the shoulders of the country's two most promising exponents - Adlan Abdul Majid and Nurul Farhana Abdul Majid

They are not related but country's hopes are on them in the three-day meet at the Bedok Sports Hall from Friday to Sunday where participation from 15 countries is expected

The 17-year old Adlan from Pahang was voted the Most Valuable Exponent in the recent National Junior Meet here from Feb 22-25 while Nurul Farhana, 16, was judged the Most Promising Athlete

Coach Nasri Nasir, who heads a three-member coaching team to the championship, is putting his money on the two of them to deliver the goods

"It's difficult to predict what will happen in Singapore because the last World Junior meet was held a long way back, in 2000 in Vietnam," he said, adding that he anticipated the strongest opposition to come from the hosts, Vietnam and Indonesia

The 32-member squad is now in training at the Youth and Sports Complex here and will leave for Singapore on Thursday, A total of 26 gold medals are at stake - 20 in the tanding (fighting) category and six in the seni (artistic) category

The three-day meet will also coincide with the Invitational World Pre-Junior meet (12-13 years) and also the Singapore Open Senior Meet (17-40 years) in which Malaysia are sending a full team

However, as the National A team is in preparation for the Belgium Open next month, the Pencak Seni Silat Association of Malaysia have decided to send their National B team instead

"But we are also targetting five gold medals in the Senior meet," said a team spokesman

Written by DAN GUEN CHIN
Sourced from http://www.accessmylibrary.com/article-1G1-160309920/high-hopes-placed-junior.html

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