SINGAPORE: Sharmini Christina Ratnasingham had one goal coming into this SEA Games - to improve on the bronze medal she won four years ago.
And the 29-year-old equestrian rider managed to do just that, winning a silver in the team showjumping event on Monday together with Natasha Ines Wah Idris, Mohd Nabil Fikri Ismail and Ahmad Imtaz Amir Hamzah.
The property investor who divides her time between Kuala Lumpur and London, and whose horses are based in Germany, admitted the silver was a pleasant, yet unexpected, surprise. More so since Sharmini and her mount, Arcado L, qualified for the individual event finals without any penalty points.
“I’m really pleased we coped so well in the first two rounds and that we got through without any penalty points,” said Sharmini.
“I only returned from Europe two days before the competition started so I was worried about acclimatisation ... since it’s much hotter here.
“But I’m really glad that we managed to get a silver, especially since I only had a bronze with Natasha and Nabil four years ago. All that training and hard work definitely paid off,” she said.
With a silver in the bag, Sharmini is now hoping to add to her medal tally when the individual competition begins on Wednesday.
“I would love to win the individual event, but it will be a new competition and the challenges will be tougher. We don’t know how the course will be, so we’ll just have to take it in our stride,” she added.
Sharmini will face a sizeable challenge from the Singaporean trio of Pedrag Marjanovic, Catherine Chew and Cheong Su-Yen. All of whom completed their routines during the team event without any penalty points as Singapore romped home for the gold.
The Star Online
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