Karate: Manila setback not dampening Shahmalarani's spirits, aiming to defend Sea Games gold in Cambodia

KUALA LUMPUR - Despite missing out on the gold medal at the 10th South East Asean Karate Federation (SEAKF) Championships in Manila, national karate exponent C Shahmalarani's spirits remain high as she aims to defend the gold medal at the SEA Games in Cambodia this May.

In fact, the women’s 50kg gold medal winner at the Vietnam SEA Games in Hanoi, last year, sees the silver medal she achieved in Manila as an inspiration to regain victory at the upcoming biennial games.

The 25-year-old exponent is using the SEAKF tournament as a lesson to tune her mindset to fight at the world level when facing the opposition in the SEA Games.

"The competition at the SEAKF taught me how to handle the SEA Games, now I know what strategy to use in Cambodia.

"It’s was a lesson for me, I realise what needs to be improved and how to handle world-class rivals, because previously in SEA Games action, I was only thinking at the world level when I met a world champion,” she said at the karate squad’s training session for the SEA Games, here recently.

Shahmalarani, who made her debut at the Hanoi SEA Games last year, struck gold in the women's under 50kg kumite.

However, at the SEAKF, she only brought home a silver medal after losing 1-5 to Junna Tsukii of the Philippines who is also the 2022 world champion.

Regarding the new coach of the Malaysian squad, Tamer Abdelraouf Mohamed Mourssy, Shahmalarani said it was the best opportunity for her to benefit from the experience of the coach from Egypt.

Meanwhile, Terengganu’s top sportswoman for 2021-22 Siti Nur Azwani Nor Azli declared that she was now more compatible with the training pattern of Tamer Abdelraouf who just took over the national reins last month.

Although it was quite difficult to adapt to the training style of Tamer Abdelraouf in the early stages, but according to Siti Nur Azwani, the success of the national karate squad at the SEAKF Championships in the Philippines recently, has raised her confidence to hunt for gold at the Cambodian SEA Games.

"My personal goal is to bring home the gold but I also want to give my best performance because I don’t want to disappoint the coach and myself after all the hard work and sacrifices in training,” she said.

Siti Nur Azwani won gold in the 61kg kumite by defeating last year’s Hanoi SEA Games gold winner Nguyen Thi Ngoan in the final of the 10th SEAKF Championships.

She helped the team to a bronze in the women's team event with Madhuri Poovanesan, Mathivani Murugeesan and Preyanchli Santhiran in the Hanoi SEA Games.- BERNAMA