Nurul (right) suffered a knee injury in the bout against Vietnam's Minh Quang (left). - AFP
SINGAPORE: Fencer Nurul Affiq Nazril Ismail is not one to go down tamely.
Despite suffering a left knee injury, the courageous Malaysian put up a gallant fight before going down to Vietnam’s Nguyen Minh Quang 7-4 in the quarter-finals of the men’s individual foil event.
The 23-year-old Nurul qualified for the quarter-finals by topping his group with four wins from five matches.
In the last eight, Nurul was unfortunate to pick up an injury to his knee after just 45 seconds in the first quarter. He received treatment for two minutes and trailed 2-0. He aggravated the injury in the second quarter and was treated for five minutes.
He refused to surrender and fought on until the final seconds of the third quarter. Although he lost, the fans cheered for him for his never-say-die attitude.
Nurul collapsed immediately after the final quarter and had to be carried out of the OCBC Arena 2.
He was in tears and was too distressed to talk to the media.
Malaysian coach Tamas Laszlo Medgyes praised Nurul for his never-say-die attitude.
“He was in a lot of pain ... he could hardly put any pressure on his injured knee but he still refused to give up.” said the Hungarian coach.
“Nurul was the favourite to beat the Vietnamese fencer as he did well in the preliminary round but it was just unfortunate that Nurul suffered the injury in the quarter-finals," said Medgeyes.
Another Malaysian fencer Mohd Aqil Anuar did well to reach the round of 16 knockout stage of the men's foil event after wining two of his group matches. But Mohd Aqil lost 15-8 to Minh Quang, who beat Nurul in the quarters.
The Star
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