JAKARTA: Fencer Liong Ming Chang wore a big smile on his face yesterday.
That’s because he will finally get his money back after helping the men’s sabre team win a gold medal on the last day of the fencing competition yesterday.
Ming Chang, Mohd Radhi Hasim, Yu Peng Keang and reserve Nurul Ariezzat Ismail gave a rousing performance to beat Vietnam’s Vu Thanh An, Nguyen Van Quynh, To Van Hop 45-37 in the final.
Ming Chang is at the Games under Category B where the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) will reimburse the cost for the trip if the athletes win a silver or gold medal.
“Now, I can repay the Johor Sports Council for funding my trip here,” said the 22-year-old mathematics and science student at Universiti Putra Malaysia.
“As a Category B athlete, the overall cost for me was RM3,000. Now, I will be able to claim this amount from the OCM. The money aside, the experience for me was priceless.”
For Ming Chang, the win also came as a surprise as all his team-mates were injured. Radhi and Nurul are still recovering from hamstring injuries while Peng Keang has been troubled by a knee injury.
“Despite all this, the team did well to beat Vietnam in a convincing manner. It is a great boost and will motivate us to continue with our pursuit for honours in other tournaments – like the world meet and Asian Games,” said Ming Chang, who picked up the sport when he was a student at the Bandar Penawar Sports School.
Team manager Riduan Abdul gave his fencers the thumbs-up for their overall performance over the five days.
“It was a great start and a great finish by the fencers. We started with Joshua Koh I-Jie winning the gold medal in the individual epee and today, our sabre team ended our campaign with a gold medal,” said Riduan.
“In fact, fencing has contributed one medal every day. This is a great success for us as we will go home with two gold and five bronze medals.”
