Penang Gymnast Ng Chun Chen Clinches Gold Medal at SUKMA

BY: Michelle Liew

Penang gymnast Ng Chun Chen can breathe a sigh of relief after clinching the men’s individual all-around gold medal at the 20th Malaysia Games (SUKMA) on Sunday.

This is the first gold medal for the individual category in its third appearance at the SUKMA tournament.

Chun Chen collected 77.850 points in all six disciplines, beating fellow nationals Muhammad Shahrul Aimy Mohd Kamarul Hisam and Luqman Al Hafiz Zulfa which took home silver and bronze respectively.

Muhammad Shahrul representing Terengganu collected 76,900 points and Perak representative Luqman Al Hafiz only collected 76,350 points.

Chun Chen’s commendable performance also contributed to Penang’s success in winning gold in the men’s team category after collecting a total of 282,300 points.

“I’m grateful to my teammates because without them I couldn’t have done it either. Actually, among us there were some injured, including me in the ankle, but we still fought until the end.

“For me the success of the team is more important than the individual, to be a team we must fight all the way because Penang has won gold many times in Sukma,” he told reporters.

“I’m actually very happy to win gold (overall individual) because it’s my first individual gold, I try not to look too happy but actually I’m very happy deep down,”.

This edition of SUKMA will be the last for Chun Chen who will be taking a rest for a while before returning to training in preparation for next year’s challenges including the dream of representing the country at the SEA Games and several other games and tournaments.

In the meantime, the silver medal in the men’s team category went to Sabah after the team successfully collecting 262,450 points while Johor who collected 260,250 points had to settle for bronze.

The artistic gymnastics event will close its curtains tomorrow with 10 gold medals up for grabs.