Penang athletes hoping to redeem themselves in Sukma

PENANG athletes, after falling flat on their faces in the last Sukma in 2016 in Sarawak, are determined to rise from the ashes of defeat in the 19^th edition to be hosted by Perak from Sept 11 to 22.

They had been expected to win four golds in Sarawak then but came back with a mere silver and three bronze medals.

Having learnt their lessons well, team manager Retna Kumar is predicting one gold and five bronze medals this time from his team of 22 athletes.

“Our preparation is going on smoothly and the coaches are pushing their athletes hard in the final phase of training,” he said.

The athletes are being trained by Penang’s 1966 Asian Games champion Datuk Krishnan Tambu, Hazril Hassan, Mohd Farouk and Uzbek Olesya Alexsandrovna.

Their brightest prospects for gold should come from javelin thrower J. Pavithraa Devi, 19, and heptathlete Koh Ann Yi, 17.

Pavithraa, who won three bronze medals in 2016 Sukma, is eyeing gold medals in the javelin and discus events.

“I want to make up for my disappointment in the last Sukma. I broke my hand about a month before the games because of a motorcycle accident,” said Pavithraa, a first-year student at Management and Science University (MSU) in Penang.

Based on her experience of having competed in the 2017 SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur and having a personal best of 43.21m for javelin and 41.89m for discus, Pavithraa should be among the favourites.

Ironically, she had won Sukma gold medal before, though not in athletics. She was a member of the winning softball team in 2013. Pitching was her forte.

“But after softball was dropped from subsequent games as it was not a compulsory sport, I attended a trial and was converted to become an athlete because they see I have the strength,” she said.

Pavithraa is one of the five throwers under the care of coach Hazril Hassan, 36. The others are hammer throwers Abdul Hadi Samad and Chung Ling High School student Ma Jing Yang, and shot putters Nur Dinie Shahirah Abdullah and Aina Mislah Razif.

Giving them some competition during training at the SMK Seri Balik Pulau field is a group of Perlis Sukma athletes who are in Penang to train from Aug 22 to 29.

For Ann Yi, to compete in seven events over two days in the heptathlon can be very demanding but the Form Four student of SMK Berapit is geared for the challenge. The grueling task begins with the 100m hurdles, high jump, shot putt and 200m on the first day, and the long jump, javelin and 800m on the second day.

“This is going to be my first Sukma and it’ll be nice to win a gold medal,” said Ann Yi, who has won the national schools (MSSM) heptathlon event in 2017 and 2018. When she first took part in the MSSM in 2016, she finished eighth.

Training under Olesya, she hopes to better her overall points of 4,258 points collected in this year’s MSSM championships.

Krishnan, a coach who often lets his athletes’ feet do the talking, feels road racer Janice Loh can pull off an upset if she adopts a right strategy in the women’s 5,000m.

In Brian Poh, a Form Four student of SMK Jalan Damai, Krishnan sees a potential finalist in the 400m hurdles.

“It’ll be tough for him as a 16-year-old competing against rivals aged 20 or 21. But the experience will put him in good stead as he grows in maturity,” said Krishnan, who together with (Tan Sri) Dr M. Jegathesan, G. Rajalingam and Mohd Ariffin won the 4x100m gold medal in the 1966 Asian Games in Bangkok.