Gold Still Elusive, Two More Silver In The Bag

INCHEON, Sept 29 (Bernama) -- A further gold medal still remained elusive for Malaysia on the ninth of day of the Asian Games here but the national contingent added two more silver to their medal tally Sunday. The silver were contributed by the 'Robin Hood' trio of Khairul Anuar Mohamad, Atiq Bazil Bakri and Haziq Kamaruddin in the men's recurve team event and the other by the bowling squad in the men's trios. Zulmazran Zulkifli, Timmy Tan and Syafiq Ridhwan Abdul Malek had to settle for the silver after downing 3,801 pins, 80 pins behind the trio from Japan who took the gold. The bronze was won by hosts south Korea. In the bowling women's trios, Esther Cheah, Shalin Zulkifli and Sin Li Jane had to be satisfied with sixth place after collecting 3,661 pins overall. The hosts took both the gold and bronze when their trios recorded 3,896 and 3,692 pins while Singapore took the silver after their trio finished with 3,753 pins. Malaysia's hopes of clinching a gold medal in the badminton men's singles were also dashed when world number one Lee Chong Wei crashed out in the semifinals after losing to his archrival Lin Dan of China. Chong Wei started off well but lost the first set 20-22. He rebounded to take the second in 21-12 but lost the rubber in 9-21. The final will be an all Chinese affair between Lin Dan and Chen Long. Meanwhile, Malaysia's chef-de-mission Daniyal Balagopal Abdullah said he was still optimistic that the national contingent could achieve their eight gold target. "I think we are still on track. We are hoping for the gold to come from sailing, diving and karate and for the national sepak takraw team to make some quick changes so as to deliver in the regu," he said. Monday, Malaysia's gold medal hunt will be in the women's 3m springboard synchronised and 10m platform men's synchronised and bowling men and women's five in a team. -- BERNAMA