Teen Sailor Asnawi Clinches Bronze Medal at Hangzhou Asian Games

BY: Michelle Liew

The Malaysian Contingent's wait for its first medal on Hangzhou ended with glee as the sailing team was awarded the bronze medal on the third day of the 2022 Asian Games today.

The victory is courtesy of 17-year-old Asnawi Iqbal Adam’s stellar performance in the 4-man ILCA event at the Ningbo Xiangshan Sailing Centre, approximately 170 kilometres (km) from here.

Although Asnawi finished the last of the 11 races in ninth position today, he managed to maintain third position with 42 penalty points.

The gold medal was won by Thai surfer Weka Bhanubandh (13 points) while Isaac Goh (21) from Singapore took home the silver.

Asnawi who was happy and somewhat surprised by the success, said it was the best achievement in his sports career.

"Despite winning bronze, I have to admit that the gap between me and the other sailors is huge. Although the national squad's training in Langkawi is quite good, if we have training abroad, we can go further," he said when contacted.

The young athlete will now start competing in ILCA 6 or ILCA 7 events after passing the age limit of 17 years.

The sailing camp continued its streak when it awarded the second bronze through Tengku Nurani Ezaty Tengku Khairudeen in the women's Windsurfing RSX event.

The 19-year-old athlete collected 43 penalty points after 14 laps of the race, trailing behind 2014 and 2018 edition bronze winners Siripon Kaewduang-Ngam (18) of Thailand took home the gold this time, and Ngai Wai Yan (20) of Hong Kong who took home silver.

Muhammad Izzudin Abdul Rani, on the other hand, had to win the men's RSX windsurfing event when he finished fourth with 54 penalty points, just two points more than the bronze medal winner from India, Eabad Ali (52).

South Korean athlete Cho Won-woo took gold with 13 race points, while silver went to Natthaphong Phonoppharat (29) from Thailand after 14 race points.

Meanwhile, the Muhammad Fauzi Kaman Shah-Juni Karimah Noor Jamali pairing finished the International 470 mixed event in fifth position with 49 points after completing all 12 races.

Gold belonged to the Japanese representative Keiju Okada-Miho Yoshioka (14), while Wenju Dong-Jingsa Wang (21) from China and Kim Jia-Cho Sung Min from South Korea (40) took home silver and bronze respectively.

Nur Shazrin Mohamad Latif, on the other hand, is almost certain to win gold in the women's ILCA 6 events, thereby earning a ticket to the Paris Olympics 2024, if she is able to finish in the top five and not make any major mistakes in tomorrow's medal round that offers double points.

After 11 races so far, the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang bronze medalist remains on top with 25 penalty points, 12 ahead of Hong Kong's Stephanie Norton (37) and Singapore's Victoria Jing Hua Chan (38).