Jonah In A Class Of His Own Despite Injury To Smash Games Record In Shot Put

From Ahmad Nazrin Syahmi

KUCHING, Aug 19 (Bernama) -- Sarawak's rising athlete Jonah Chang Rigan was in a class of his own to break the Malaysian Games (SUKMA) men's shot put record despite being in pain during the final competition at the Sarawak Stadium here today.

 Jonah's record of 17.66 meters (m) in the second throw allowed him to clinch the gold medal in style when he smashed the 14-year-old Games record of 17.31m set by Terengganu’s Adi Aliffudin Husin in 2010 during nthe games in Melaka. 

 The victory was even sweeter as it was the first gold medal for host Sarawak from athletics.

Speaking to reporters, he admitted that he was a little upset because he dreamed of renewing his national record of 17.89m, but his performance was a little limited because he was still in the process of recovering from a shoulder injury.

“I really wanted to make more progress to surpass 18m but this is the best for now. I can't take the risk because I still have two more events after this, which are discus and hammer throw.

“It's disappointing but I don't want to show the supporters. Gold is a positive result but in terms of throwing, I feel a little disappointed,” said the 21-year-old athlete.

Jonah will compete in the discus event on Wednesday while the hammer throw event is scheduled for Friday.

The event's silver medal was won by Pang Hong Seng from Sabah who registered a throw of 14.38m while Kelantan’s Wan Muhammad Irfan Wan Mohd Tahar had to settle for bronze after recording 13.83m.

Perak also secured their first medal from athletics when Mohd Shah Solihin Azshar recorded a distance of 15.41m to sweep the gold medal in the triple jump, followed by Muhammad Izzul Haniff Mohd Raffi from Selangor (14.96m) and Sabah’s Eljoe Gotuoh bronze (14.71m).

Selangor claimed their second gold medal in athletics through Esther Joy Hong Li Cheng from the women’s 5,000m with a time of 19 minutes 33.12 seconds (s), followed by Perak’s Margreat Mary K. Johnson (19:42.15s) and Tan Zhi Lin (19:51.46s) came in second and third to walk away with the silver and bronze medals.

Meanwhile, Johor's mixed 4x400m quartet bagged the gold after recording a time of 3:32.67s, followed by Sabah in second place (3:35.65s) and Perak in third (3:37.94s).

-- BERNAMA