Kota Kinabalu: High jumper Farrell Glenn Felix Jurus won Sabah’s first gold medal in the 20th Malaysian Games (Sukma) at the Bukit Jalil Stadium, Thursday morning.
The 21-year-old upstaged fellow Sabahan and SEA Games bronze medallist Eizlan Dahalan to take the gold.
It was a two-horse race between the two Sabahans but Eizlan, who had a hectic schedule with three international outings since the start of the year, looked fatigued towards the end and only managed to jump over 2.06m.
Eizlan, who has a personal best of 2.18m, opted to skip the next 2.09m mark but was unable to clear the following height of 2.14m while Farrell had no problem in his first attempt. Sabah’s Chef de Mission Mansur Asun (centre) poses with Farrell (right) and Eizlan.
The Tenom lad then went on to achieve his personal best with 2.15m in his first try but failed in all three attempts when the bar was raised to 2.18m.
In third place was Kuan Jyh Yunn from Perak who only managed 2.03m.
Farrell’s coach and Sabah Malaysia Sports School-based Cyril Johnny, who was present at the stadium to give tips, was delighted with his student’s win.
“I am really happy for him. The success comes through hard work since I spotted his talent when he was still in Form One.
“It also came as no surprise to me with Sabah taking the top two places. Both of them were always in healthy competition over the years and this may be Farrell’s first win over Eizlan in a major competition.
“But we must take into account that Eizlan was rather tired after his involvement in so many competitions this year,” he said.
Meanwhile, the State track and field contingent also did well in the women’s event with Dayang Shari Uluk taking the bronze medal in the triple jump event.
The 19-year-old leapt to a distance of 11.35m to finish in third place behind Perak’s Nurul Ashikin Abas (12.81m) and Ng Yu Jie (11.79m) from Pahang.
Later in the afternoon, the Sabah contingent added another gold from the karate kata men’s team of Clevelence Carlos, Azhad Haziq Henry and Haznil Hendry, and two silvers from Michell Michelin Linus in the karate kumite women’s -55 kg category and Siaw Ree Hang in the wushu men’s nangun.
Sabah ended the day with additional four bronzes from Shelden Spencer Wong in the wushu sanda men’s -52kg, and from karate by Standley Dulian in the kumite individual men’s -55kg, Richal Mattan in the kumite individual men’s -66kg and Leong Jia Chii in the kumite individual women’s -61kg.
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