SUKMA 2024: Perak Exponents Steal Show With Three-gold Feat in Silambam

KUCHING, Aug 20 (Bernama) -- Perak’s silambam squad began the 2024 Malaysia Games (SUKMA) campaign by bagging three out of the four gold medals at stake at the Hikmah Exchange Event Centre here today. 

G. Aswin bagged the men’s kuthu aarisai (bare hands) gold with 8.67 points, while T. Yoganath (8.13pts) of the Federal Territories (FT) and Selangor’s S. Kahlisswaran (8.10pts) took silver and bronze respectively. 

Perak also dominated both the women’s events.

B. Laashmita stole the show in the thanithiramai (individual artistic staff spinning) event by accumulating 7.87 points. Negeri Sembilan’s L. Kavinarasi (7.57pts) and Terengganu’s S. Keertika (7.37pts) completed the podium. 

In the women’s kuthu varisai event, A. Vidyasri clinched the gold with 8.33 points, leaving Terengganu’s M. Iswari (8.17pts) and Selagor’s M. Harini (7.77pts) for the silver and bronze.

Perak came close to making a clean sweep of all the gold medals at stake today but H. Sharvanish (8.07pts) missed out on the men’s thanithiramai title by the slimmest of margins - just 0.3 points - to Selangor’s M. Sarveshaa (8.10pts). FT’s S. Nivess (8.03pts) finished third. 

Perak Silambam Association president C. Marimutthu attributed their success to the athletes’ discipline and outstanding performances.

“Everyone performed well today despite the great challenge from other states. We just missed out on the fourth gold by a very small margin. We hope to win at least two more gold medals on Thursday,” he told Bernama. 

Gold medals for the eight categories under poruthal (combat) - four each for men and women - as well as the mixed team synchronised bare hands and synchronised weapon (involving five fighters from each team) will be decided on the final day of the competition on  Thursday.

Meanwhile, Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh, who was at the Hikmah Exchange Event Centre earlier to watch the competition, said silambam and kabbadi would remain in the SUKMA programme as medal sports for the 2026 edition in the Klang Valley. 

“The inclusion of these two Indian traditional sports was decided by the SUKMA Supreme Committee on June 12, 2023. This shows that the MADANI government will continue to give priority to traditional sports so that they will not fade away.

“The inclusion of silambam and kabbadi in SUKMA will provide the opportunity to unearth talent among the Indian youth so that they will have the chance to compete on the international stage, such as the Asian Games, which features kabbadi as well,” she said in a statement.

-- BERNAMA