Mohd Yusrie Mohd Yusof celebrates after beating Malacca
KANGAR: Terengganu’s Mohd Yusrie Mohd Yusof came to the Malaysia Games (Sukma) with just one thing on his mind - to go home a two-time Sukma gold medallist.
The 21-year-old taekwondo exponent, who was making his final appearance at the Games, managed to keep Malacca’s Jonathan Jude at bay to carve out a 4-2 victory in the men’s 63-68kg category bout at the Perlis Matriculation College in Arau on Tuesday.
“My opponent was much taller than me, so there was a constant threat that he could just go for a head shot. But that didn’t scare me. I never backed down,” said Yusrie.
“I knew I had to keep coming at him, keep attacking and keep a close distance and not allow him to get any kicks in,” he added.
The Tumpat-born exponent has represented Terengganu twice, winning the gold in the same category two years ago in Pahang.
“Coming here as defending champion was a totally different experience. I had a huge target on my back.
“Everyone wanted to take me out, but I just kept fighting and reminding myself what was at stake.
“Now I can say I’ve won gold back-to-back. I’m a two-time Sukma champion,” said Yusrie.
“I can now concentrate on my studies. It has come second to taekwondo on so many occasions,” added the first year IT student from Mersing Polytechnic.
Meanwhile, the final day of competition was not without its fair share of drama as there were a number of protests from competing teams.
Terengganu felt the most hard done by.
“I’m very disappointed with the organisers because they promised us a fair and clean competition. But on the last day (yesterday), it was so evident that that was not the case,” said Terengganu team manager Azman Mustafa.
Questioning the refereeing decisions, Azman said Terengganu had the most number of official protests yesterday but all those against Federal Territories were overturned.
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