Queenie celebrates her third consecutive Sukma gold medal at the 2018 Perak Sukma in this Bernama file photo. — Bernama photo
KUALA LUMPUR (April 13): National women’s discus thrower Queenie Ting Kung Ni is determined to renew her national record and win a medal at the Hanoi SEA Games next month.
The 24-year-old said she needed to maintain consistency and best throwing techniques to achieve that goal at the biennial games scheduled from May 12 to 23.
Queenie, who hails from Sarikei in Sarawak, became the first Malaysian woman to surpass the 50-metre barrier in the event with a throw of 50.67m at the Malaysian Track & Field Trials last November.
“The preparation this time is intensive with the main objective to get a medal. But the coach (Mohamad Ali Hamid) and I have discussed throwing more than 50.67m in Hanoi ,” she said at the national athletics squad’s press conference at the National Sports Council (MSN) here on Monday.
Queenie, who won the bronze medal at the 2019 SEA Games in the Philippines (45.28m), threw a distance of 47.67m at the KL Allcomers Championship on March 26.
The squad’s head coach Mohd Manshahar Abdul Jalil is confident that the target of five gold medals set by the Malaysian Athletics Federation (MAF) for this edition is a realistic one.
“With a line-up of 36 athletes including 18 under Category A (match the top three positions in the last edition of the SEA Games), I am confident it is a realistic target based on the current achievements of the athletes. InsyaAllah, (God willing), we will get more than the five golds,” he said.
Mohd Manshahar also stressed that the line-up of athletes this time was made by majority decision at the selection meeting last month.
He said 13 of the athletes, especially from Category A, would participate in the 82nd Singapore Open Track & Field Championships this weekend as their final competitive preparation ahead of the Hanoi Games.
Mohd Manshahar also informed that some of the athletes who are currently abroad such as hammer throwers Jackie Wong Siew Cheer (men) and Grace Wong Xiu Mei (women) who are training in South Korea, as well as men’s sprinter Russel Alexander Nasir Taib (Melbourne, Australia) will go straight to Hanoi next month.
Meanwhile, team manager John Ayavu said all the planning for the national athletics squad was running smoothly, and hoped that the meet in Singapore would be used as best as possible for the athletes to prime themselves.
“We also hope that the athletes can use the opportunity in Singapore to measure their performance against their opponents from other Southeast Asian countries who will be competing in Hanoi,” he added. — Bernama
from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3JvB6Ch
via IFTTT
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