BEIJING, Sept 14 (Bernama) -- National yachters Loke Sin Ying and Al Mustakim Matrin have proven their worth by registering Malaysia as the second best team in Asia with their commendable performance at the 13th Beijing Paralympic Games, Saturday.
Cruising in the Skud18, they finished sixth from 12 countries in the 2-Person Keelboat in Qingdao, Shandong province.
"Based on the results, they are now number two in Asia. They piped Singapore who trained much longer than us.
"Despite training for only three months, the duo managed to narrow the gap with more experienced teams.
"Even at the World Skud Championship in Singapore in March, they had only three hours of training. It was at this meet that they qualified for the Beijing Paralympics," said national coach Mohamed Fauzi Mohamed Mustafa.
He said Loke and Al Mustakim were also unfortunate as the boat which they used for training at the Admiral Marina, Port Dickson had to be taken from them in May to be sent to the Olympic Sailing Centre in Qingdao for the Beijing Olympics.
The boat, which was sponsored by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA), was returned to them 10 days before the Beijing Paralympic Games to enable them to resume training.
Mohamed Fauzi said national sailors needed more exposure and hoped the National Sports Council would sent them to take part in international championships especially the Asian Para Games in Guangzhou in two years' time.
-- BERNAMA
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