Guangzhou - Malaysia bagged their first gold medal in the 16th Asian Games here through Chai Fong Ying in wushu on Day Three of the Games which officially began on Saturday.
Besides this, Malaysia also captured the first silver through Ibrahim Amir who was in action in the 8-Ball Pool Singles final.
After today's competitions involving Malaysians, the national contingent's medal tally stands at one gold, one silver and three bronze, which puts Malaysia in eighth position in the medal standings.
As of 11pm tonight, hosts China lead the medal standings with 53 gold, 20 silver and 19 bronze followed by South Korea (18, 13, 18) and Japan (13, 25, 23).
Not only did Fong Ying win the gold, she also successfully defended her Tajijian gold that she won when making her Asian Games debut in Doha, Qatar four years ago.
However, Ng Shin Yi, her compatriot in the event had to be satisfied with fifth placing.
The silver was all the more sweet for the 49-year-old Ibrahim on the personal level as he had returned empty-handed in the last two editions of the Games.
In the final today, Ibrahim lost 4-7 to Kuo Po Cheng of Taiwan. At the Guangzhou Velodrome, national cycling ace Mohd Azizulhasni Awang booked his ticket for tomorrow's semifinal of the men's 200m individual sprint after defeating Hassanali Varposhti of Iran in the quarterfinal.
Dubbed the `The Pocketrocketman', he posted 10.781s in the first sprint and 10.982s in the second to overcome the Iranian.
Tomorrow, Mohd Azizulhasni will be up against Doha gold medallist Zhang Lei of China and two Japanese riders, Kitatsuru Tsubasa and Nitta Yudai.
In the women's event of the same, Fatehah Mustafa failed to advance past the quarterfinal after being defeated by Kim Wongyeong of South Korea.
In the team pursuit, the Malaysian quartet of Mohamad Akmal Amrun, Muhamad Adiq Husainie Othman, Amir Mustafa Rusli and Mohd Rizal Tisin lost to the Iranian team but managed to rewrite the national record in the event.
The Malaysians' time was four minutes 18.596 seconds while the Iranians did 4:15.225s.
Team manager Datuk Naim Mohamad said the 4:18.596s erased the old mark of 4:20s set by the same four at the World Championship in Beijing in January.
Meanwhile, the national football squad bid goodbye to the Games when they lost 1-3 to defending champions Iran in the knockout stage.
Though without key players because of injuries and red cards, K.Rajagobal's boys can take pride that they gave a good account of themselves
Tomorrow, though the Malaysian contingent will be celebrating Aidiladha, which is celebrated here one day earlier than Malaysia, there will be no let up in the quest to meet the nine-gold target that has been set for the team.
Attention will be focused on Mohd Azizulhasni and Malaysian tenpin bowlers Shalin Zulkifli, Esther Cheah and Zandra Aziela Ibrahim who will begin the hunt for gold in the women's individual event at the Tianhe Bowling Alley.
The men's and women's badminton squads will also be starting their campaigns in the individual events at the Tianhe Stadium tomorrow.
Source: http://www.bernama.com