KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22 — With the Johor contingent firmly perched at the top of the 20th Malaysia Games (Sukma) medal tally, the Federal Territories have started to gain momentum in their bid to challenge for the overall title.
On the eighth day of medal competition today, the Federal Territories, known as ‘WiPers’, emerged the most successful contingent, winning 11 of the 59 gold medals on offer, apart from eight silver and 11 bronze medals.
Muay thai was the biggest contributor with four golds, while weightlifting and swimming gave two golds each and diving, pencak silat and bowling accounted for one gold each.
Today’s excellent displays have boosted WiPers’ medal haul to 33 golds, 38 silvers and 45 bronzes to leapfrog over Terengganu into second place.
However, Johor, who are gunning for their first overall title since 1986, look difficult to be overhauled as the Southern Tigers are in a class of their own with 60 golds, or 21.5 per cent of the 279 golds contested so far.
Johor have also won 35 silvers and 32 bronzes.
Today, Johor scooped up nine golds, including all three in the 1,000m traditional boat race 8 paddlers for men, women and mixed.
Canoeing is a gold mine for Johor, who have grabbed 17 of the 25 golds contested at the Putrajaya Water Sports Complex so far, with three more at stake tomorrow.
Johor also triumphed in pencak silat with two golds, while archery, swimming, muaythai and cycling pulled in one gold each.
Terengganu are in third spot with a haul of 33 golds, 33 silvers and 36 bronzes, after clinching seven golds today — two each from archery, judo and muaythai and one from weightlifting.
More than 30 gold medals are at stake tomorrow, with the focus on swimming which offers eight golds, archery (five), cycling (four), weightlifting (four), judo (four), canoeing (three), shooting (three) and rhythmic gymnastics (two). — Bernama
