DEAFLYMPICS 2025: MALAYSIA END CAMPAIGN WITH BOWLERS OFF TARGET

From Farah Najihah Zuraimi

TOKYO, Nov 25 (Bernama) -- Malaysia ended the penultimate day of the Deaflympics 2025 broken-hearted after the national bowlers finished ninth to miss out on a place in the second round of the mixed team event by a single pin at the Higashiyamato Grand Bowl here today.

The Malaysian quartet - Ho Choon Seong, Syabil Azam Syamsul Azam, Siong Mui Hong and Siw Sing Hie - toppled 1,109 pins to finish behind eighth-placed Germany (1,110 pinfalls).

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National deaf bowling head coach Joe Tay said that once the quadrennial Games conclude tomorrow, he will meet with the Malaysian Deaf Sports Association (MSDeaf) to discuss his future, although he only joined the team in October last year.

“I will probably need to have a proper one-on-one discussion with MSDeaf president Ong Shin Ruenn to look at the direction moving forward and what others have planned. As of now, I am not sure whether I will continue or not.

“For future Deaflympics, I hope there will be better strategic and logistical planning because we faced some issues with Team Malaysia.

"For example, other teams stay near their venues and their travel time is around 15 minutes. Our players, however, have to wake up as early as 5 am to get to their venues. I hope the management can learn from this,” he told reporters here today.

On Sunday (Nov 23), Joe claimed that the shocking first-round exit of the national men’s bowling team, regarded as Malaysia’s best gold-medal prospects at the Deaflympics 2025, was due to transportation issues, which led to them arriving late at the venue and having no time to warm up.

The journey from Deaflympics C, the designated bus pickup point to the Higashiyamato Grand Bowl is about 37 kilometres and normally takes around one hour and 45 minutes.

Joe, however, stressed that the players are highly talented, although the pressure of competing abroad may have affected their ability to produce more breakthroughs.

“I am satisfied with one gold and one silver we picked up, but based on our overall form, we actually could have bagged more.

“Overall, I’m very happy with our haul of one gold and one silver. Definitely very happy,” he said.

Bowling remains Malaysia’s most successful sport at the Games this year, delivering a gold in men’s doubles and a silver in women’s doubles.

With the mixed team event being the final outing for the national contingent, Malaysia concluded their Deaflympics 2025 campaign with a four-medal haul: one gold (men’s doubles bowling), two silvers (women’s doubles bowling and men’s karate individual kumite below 84kg) and one bronze (mixed doubles badminton).

The national contingent, thus, failed to meet the MSDeaf target of three gold medals.

-- BERNAMA