PETALING JAYA: Leong Tze Wai kept the Malaysian flag flying high after winning the men’s individual kata (non-sparring) gold medal at the just-concluded Asian Karate Championships in Tashkent, Uzbekistan.
The win ensures that the 25-year-old Tze Wai is the first Malaysian exponent to retain his men’s individual kata title at the Asian level.
Tze Wai earned his second career Asian meet gold medal in style by beating Japan’s Oki Itaru 5-0 in the final.
Itaru was the silver medallist at the last Asian Games in Guangzhou two years ago, when he lost to another Malaysian, Ku Jin Keat, who has since retired from the national squad.
And Tze Wai, who hails from Kota Kinabalu, has proven to be a worthy successor to Jin Keat on the international arena.
Tze Wai’s victory was all the more sweeter as he also beat Indonesia SEA Games gold medallist Faisal Zainuddin of Indonesia 4-1 in the quarter-finals before prevailing 3-2 against South Korea’s Park Hee-jun to reach the final.
Tze Wai, who had a bye in the first round before overcoming Hong Kong’s Cheng Tsz Man 5-0 to make the last eight, moved to from Sabah to Penang three years ago to train under Patrick Lim Chee Jin.
Tze Wai also took home a bronze medal in the men’s kata with Kam Kah Sam and Lim Chee Wei.
Two more bronze medals came courtesy of Celine Lee Xin Yi in the women’s individual kata and Khaw Yee Voon and Thor Chee Yee in the team event.
Tze Wai’s success also inspired the kumite men’s team to a breakthrough silver medal on the same day.
The Malaysian team had three SEA Games gold medallists in their ranks in Jamaludin Shaharudin, K. Teagarajan and Loganeshaa Rao but the trio met their match in Japan and had to settle for the silver medal after losing 1-3 in the final. Malaysia had earlier defeated China, Pakistan and Saudi Arabia.
Tze Wai’s win made up for the disappointment in the senior ranks of the individual categories, with only Loganeshaa and G. Yamini the only ones to make the podium.
Seasoned exponent Yamini did well to come back from a three-month break due to injury to take bronze in the women’s individual kumite below 61kg while youngster Loganeshaa continued to show great promise as the only senior to contest a final.
Kumite national coach R. Puvaneswaran was happy with the overall performance.
“This is the first time we’ve got a medal in the team kumite at the Asian level. The team kumite is very prestigious as it reflects the overall strength of our squad,” he said from Tashkent.
“I was so happy when they made it to the final as that assured us of a medal.
“It was also close for Loganeshaa as he only lost 5-6 to China’s Sun Jingchao in men’s below 55kg kumite.”
Malaysia’s medal haul of 1-3-6 saw them being ranked sixth among the 26 participating countries, with Japan topping the standings with 17-5-5, followed by Iran 11-7-16.
We at FightBah would like to congratulate Leong for the gold medal and doing Sabah proud! Oss!
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