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WHEN you conduct a training session, you learn many things about your participants. Prior to the 2017 Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Malaysia, I ran a few ‘winning mentality’ and media training sessions for the women’s netball team, who were on a ‘payback mission’ after losing the gold to Singapore in the 2015 SEA Games.
As they really wanted to win the gold medal, the session I conducted became fairly-serious as the girls displayed plenty of fire and emotion. Yet, there was one athlete, who remained super-relaxed about her sport and her life and her name was Fariha Razak.
Apart from being a netball player, Fariha is also a very talented singer and entertainer. From the look of her, you wouldn’t think she was a high-performance athlete bent on perfection, but looks can be deceiving. When the whistle blows, it’s ‘game on’ for Fariha and she goes all out to win.
She was part of the team that defeated Singapore, 65-41, to clinch the gold medal in 2017. After the SEA Games, Fariha became an instant celebrity when the media branded her as ‘the athlete that can sing’.
When the media asked her about her preferred career choice, she never gave a concrete answer ─ only that she loves being a netball athlete.
Whenever I ask Fariha what is her preferred occupation, she would always reply cheekily with a big smile on her face, “See how la, Ben”.
Today, I won’t be pressuring Fariha to respond accordingly. Instead, I’m just going to showcase another wonderful Malaysian athlete.
FACT FILE
NAME: Fariha Razak
AGE: 26 years
HOMETOWN: Johor Bahru
NETBALL POSITION: Centre Court
CURRENT STUDIES: Graduated with a degree in Technology Management from UTM
CAREER HIGHLIGHT: Gold – 2016 Asian Championships; Gold – 2017 & 2019 SEA Games
NATIONAL CAPS: 45
CAREER NETBALL OBJECTIVE: To represent Malaysia at the Netball World Cup
CAREER ENTERTAINMENT GOALS: To release another music single
FAVOURITE FOOD: Nasi Ayam Penyet
See for yourself how talented Fariha is as a singer.
Ben Ibrahim is a TV Commentator, Sports & Media Consultant. In his career, he has also worked for FIBA, FISU and Foxsports. He also helped set-up the Malaysia Valke Rugby Club that played in the 2019/2020 Global Rapid Rugby competition. You can contact him on his Public Facebook page or his Instagram Account @benibrahim
