GUANGZHOU, Nov 27 (Bernama) -- Malaysia must not start celebrating prematurely for winning nine gold medals at the 16th Asian Games campaign although it was the highest in the history of the Games, and one better than the eight won at the Doha Asian Games in 2006.
The 9 gold, 18 silver, 14 bronze won in Guangzhou was in actual fact a slight improvement from the 8 gold, 17 silver, 17 bronze won in the Doha edition four years ago.
The overall standing in Guangzhou was 10th placing while the nation finished 11th in Doha.
Malaysia's achievement however, pales in contrast to what host country China had achieved since Doha and the 199 gold, 119 silver, 98 bronze medals won here underlined its dominance and superiority as a sports powerhouse in the region.
The 9 gold, 18 silver, 14 bronze won in Guangzhou was in actual fact a slight improvement from the 8 gold, 17 silver, 17 bronze won in the Doha edition four years ago.
The overall standing in Guangzhou was 10th placing while the nation finished 11th in Doha.
Malaysia's achievement however, pales in contrast to what host country China had achieved since Doha and the 199 gold, 119 silver, 98 bronze medals won here underlined its dominance and superiority as a sports powerhouse in the region.
In Doha, China accumulated 166 gold, 87 silver, 63 bronze and the total in Guangzhou was a 33-gold increase, compared with just one for Malaysia.
South Korea who finished second with 76 gold, 65 silver, 91 bronze also showed a marked improvement in the overall results compared with the 58 gold, 53 silver and 82 bronze in Doha.
Japan, although retaining third place in the overall medal tally, registered a slight drop in their overall performance when compared with Doha as the 48 gold, 74 silver, 94 bronze was two short of the 50 gold medals won in 2006.
Malaysia's gold medals came from squash (3), tenpin bowling (2), karate (2), wushu and cycling while a number of sure gold medals slipped away, especially in badminton, which is among sports targeted to win the country's first Olympic gold medal.
Lee Chong Wei and company, namely the men's doubles pair of Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong, failed to live up to expectations and ended up with two silver medals to show.
But while the men shuttlers failed to live up to expectations, the women shuttlers were a total flop as none of them even reached the crucial stages.
Some sports like athletics, sepaktakraw, archery, shooting, cricket, boxing, golf, fencing, chess and women's hockey, fared even worst.
In athletics, Noraseela Khalid who has been training abroad for almost a decade, failed to justify the money or time spent for training abroad when she could on finish fifth in the women's 400m hurdles.
High jumper Lee Hup Wei and women's pole vaulter Roslinda Samsu were also major disappointments while the NSC must look at the lack of prominent runners in a number of events that the country had dominated in the past.
There were no sprinters, middle distance runners and long distance runners, let alone field events like discus, shot put, javelin, long jump, triple jump and hammer throw.
The NSC must now work extra hard to prepare a set of back up athletes to replace veteran athletes who have sounded a warning that they might be retiring after the Games, with two names from karate, R. Puvaneswaran and Ku Jin Keat, as certain candidates to retire.
Winning nine gold medals should not trigger any gala celebrations as four years from now, the country cannot expect just another one gold medal increase when South Korea hosts the 2014 edition in Incheon.
-- BERNAMA
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