Malang, July 7 — After 11 days, the Asean University Games (AUG) 2024 in Surabaya-Malang finally drew its curtain last night.
The Malaysian contingent of 262 athletes, led by Suhairi Ismail as the head of the national contingent, showed commendable performance in Indonesia by winning 38 gold, 45 silver, and 60 bronze medals at the 21st edition of the bi-annual sports games.
However, the success in this edition is still far compared to Malaysia’s best achievement in the 2022 edition in Ubon Ratchathani, Thailand which saw Malaysia bagged 49 gold medals, 83 silver medals and 50 bronze medals.
What is more, this time, the collection of gold medals was also seen to be a little slow, reaching the target of 35 gold medals only on the penultimate day through karate athlete H. Sureeya Shankar on Thursday.
Host Indonesia, as expected, emerged at the top of the medal tally table with 126 gold medals, 99 silver and 71 bronze, followed by Thailand with 53-49-29 in the second place, while Malaysia fell to the third place in the chart compared to the second place in 2022.
The athletics camp emerged as the largest gold medal contributor, with 13 gold, 10 silver, and eight bronze medals. It was followed by the swimming camp, which surpassed its target of seven gold medals by bringing home a total of nine gold, seven silver, and 16 bronze medals.
The national judo squad was just as productive when it claimed three gold medals, three silver medals and one bronze, as the second-best team in the sport besides the archery camp, which contributed two gold medals on the last day of AUG 2024.
The impression that combat sports such as karate, taekwondo, and pencak silat are gold medal mines was inaccurate, as each of them only bagged two gold medals despite a line-up of several high-profile athletes this time.
The badminton camp’s desire to bring home four golds was also not achieved when it only achieved two gold medals, and the petanque camp only managed to secure one gold out of a target of two.
The basketball squad delivered one silver medal in the women’s 5×5 event with two bronzes through the men’s and women’s 3×3 events, in addition to sepak takraw bringing home one bronze.
Meanwhile, the Malaysia athletes in wall climbing and volleyball were just at AUG to gain exposure.
However, AUG Malaysian contingent head Suhairi can heave a sigh of relief when the Malaysian contingent met its target of 35 gold medals and exceeded the target on the last day yesterday.
“We missed some events, such as wushu, because we did not send athletes for the event. That is why our gold rush was a bit slow while the Indonesian athletes were in top form.
“A post-mortem will be conducted to prepare ourselves as the host for the next edition In 2026 and also for our athletes to put in an outstanding performance then,” he told the press yesterday.
— Bernama
