Sri Kuala Lumpur’s foursome dominate at MSSS

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THE Sri Kuala Lumpur School’s Under-10 girls line-up extended Petaling Perdana district’s domination at the Selangor Schools Sports Council (MSSS) Mini Olympic artistic gymnastics championships at SMJK Yoke Kuan in Sekinchan recently.

Besides continuing their impeccable run to emerge as the champions in the team event, the foursome of Casey Teh Qi Shi, Alisandra Ali, Wee Rou Min and Sandra Natasha from the training centre based in Subang Jaya tasted personal glory and they took home a gold medal each from the individual contests.

In the tussle for the girls’ individual all-round top spot, newcomer Teh sprang a surprise by edging out Klang’s Goh Jen Wei.

Victorious side: Kit (in red) keeping an eye on her charges (from front) Rou Min, Casey, Alisandra and Sandra while training.

The eight-year-old Teh led the Sri Kuala Lumpur and accumulated a total of 75.833 points to finish ahead of Goh (75.800) after four events — vault, single bar, balance beam and floor exercise.

On the way to overall individual victory, Teh also picked up a gold (vault), a silver (single bar) and a bronze (floor exercise) medals from the individual disciplines.

It was also a memorable outing for Teh’s team mates, with Alisandra clinching the gold medal for the floor exercise while Wee and Sandra were also winners in the single bar and balance beam respectively in the individual events.

The victorious team’s trainer Kit Sin praised the girls for stamping their mark so thoroughly at the competition.

“We are satisfied they performed to their true abilities. From our observation, we felt they delivered convincing displays in certain events even though the eventual scores suggested otherwise. Overall, it was a fruitful outing for our girls. It was a great boost for the beginners. Hopefully, they will ride on their recent achievements and scale greater heights at higher levels,” said Kit, adding that they fielded a very balanced team.

Currently, the eight-year-old Sandra and nine-year-old Alisandra are training under the care of former national gymnast Tan Kai Ling up to four times a week.

In contrast, the Sri Kuala Lumpur boys team comprising Kamil Jazmi Jamel, Gan Shu Sen, Cheah Kah Hoe and Aathmamethaa could not repeat the girls’ success as the Klang district made a clean sweep for the top three spots in the individual all-round contest.

Expert tips: Total Gymnastique chief coach Mike Ng with his charges.

For the team event that saw a total of eight teams competing, the Sri Kuala Lumpur boys completed their campaign in fifth spot.

Gan finished with the only silver medal to show from the boys’ section when the eight-year-old settled for second with a score of 19.200 behind Klang’s Ong Jia Wei (19.233) in the individual pommel horse.

The boys’ individual all-round champion Sim Oi Liang led the Klang team to victory with a total of 76.532 points over four disciplines — floor exercise, pommel horse, vault and high bar.

The Klang duo of Jiang Wei and E. Jun Long came in second (76.367) and third (75.810), respectively.

“We fielded the rookies for exposure. The four of them only started training in June. They were not ready because of the short period of preparation. They were not outstanding and they were average in executing their routines. They have the potential to shine because three of them (Kamil, Cheah and Aathmamethaa) are only seven. We are confident of grooming them to do well within the next three years in the same meet,” said Kit.