Golden haul by gymnasts in Thailand

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s Cheong See Teng and Elaine Koon emerged as the biggest winners in the South East Asian Gymnastics Confederation (SEAGCON) Championships in Suphanburi, Thailand, to underline their status as the country’s best in the artistic and rhythmic events.

Yesterday, See Teng, who is competing in her first major international tournament since an elbow injury ruled her out of the 2007 Korat SEA Games, ended the competition by winning an impressive haul of four golds and one bronze.

She steered the artistic team to the gold medal by pipping Thailand by a mere 0.1 point. The others in the team are Chan Sau Wah, Nabihah Ali, Noor Hasleen Fatihin and Tracie Ang.

The other gold medals came from the vault, uneven bars and floor exercise.

The 16-year-old See Teng, who trains under chief coach Mikhail Gutsalyuk of Russia, has been troubled by injury for some time but the Malacca lass continued to show that she is made of sterner stuff by outdoing herself.

The team gold was a great achievement for Malaysia’s women’s artistic team – especially after their third placing at the Korat Games two years ago.

Since gymnastics won’t be contested at the Laos SEA Games in December due to logistic reasons, the outcome at SEAGCON proved that Malaysia are one of the powerhouses in the region.

In rhythmic gymnastics, 16-year-old Elaine – the sole Malaysian representative – showed that she is the perfect candidate to fill the vacuum left by several top stars in the country when she bagged three individual gold medals.

Elaine, who is trying to make up for the absence of seniors like Foong Seow Ting, Chrystal Lim and Durratun Nashihin Rosli, emerged triumphant in the individual all-around, hoop and ribbon events. She also nailed two silver medals in the rope and ball events.

The debutant even upstaged Thailand’s seasoned campaigner Tharatip Sridee, who has competed in every SEA Games since 2003, to emerge as the individual all-around champion with a total score of 93.900.

She defeated Tharatip for the gold by a mere 0.25 point.

Only last month, Elaine showed that she was indeed a star in the making when she finished as the best performer in the World Championships in Japan when she was placed 54th out of 142 competitors in the individual all-around.