Taekwondo exponent Elaine bags 2004 national award

BY AFTAR SINGH

Taekwondo exponent Elaine Teo is the surprise winner of the 2004 Sportswoman of the Year Award. 

But cyclist Josiah Ng lived up to his hot favourite tag to win the men’s award. 

The 24-year-old Elaine beat two other candidates to the award – silat exponent Mastura Sapuan and squash player Nicol David. 

Elaine was a first-round casualty in the Athens Olympics last year. But she performed strongly and consistently in five other international championships – winning two gold, one silver and two bronze medals. 

She was the flyweight champion in the Open tournaments in Austria and South Korea. In the Austrian Open, she even defeated the European champion, Brigida Yagne of Spain. 

The silver medal came from the Asian qualifiers for the Olympics and she bagged bronze medals in the Asian and South-East Asian championships. 

“I felt that Nicol would win the award. She was the first Asian to reach number four in the world rankings,” conceded Elaine at the national awards ceremony at the Sheraton Hotel in Subang here last night. 

“Never in my wildest dream did I think that I will win the award ... everyone was banking on me to deliver a medal in the Athens Olympics and I let them down.” 

Elaine, who won the USA Open flyweight title early this month, added that the award would inspire her to give her best in the World Championships in Spain next month. 

“I would also like to dedicate this award to my parents (Yong Kuan and Lee Gen Hong) for their encouragement and inspiration since I took up the sport 14 years ago,” she said. 

“I also thank my personal coach, Loh Tiong Liong, and national coach R. Dhanraj for helping me win medals in international championships.” 

The Sportsman of the Year Award was another feather in the cap for the 25-year-old Josiah. He had bagged the Olympian of the Year last October. 

In the Olympics last year, Josiah became the first Malaysian to qualify for the keirin final and went on to finish a creditable sixth. 

In the Track World Cup, he was fifth in the sprint in the first leg in Moscow. In the second leg in Manchester, he was second in the keirin and sixth in the sprint. The third leg in Mexico saw him finishing third in the sprint and sixth in the keirin. 

No winners were named for the men’s team award. The women’s team award went to the squash quartet of Nicol, Sharon Wee, Tricia Chuah and Delia Arnold for winning the Asian Championships and a creditable fifth-place finish in the World Championships. 

The individual and team awards come with a purse of RM10,000 each and the winners received them from the Yang di-Pertuan Agong. 

There was also no winner for the Sports Figure (Tokoh Sukan) Award. The Leadership Award went to Rosmanizam Abdullah, who has been the secretary of the Malaysian Malays Cricket Association for the last 12 years. 

The Malaysian Taekwondo Association (MTA) chairman, Chin Mee Keong, received the Special Award. A posthumous award was also presented to the late S. Satgunam, who had served the Malaysian Hockey Federation (MHF) as a secretary for 16 years. 

The winners 

Sportsman of the Year: Josiah Ng (cycling) 

Sportswoman of the Year: Elaine Teo  

(taekwondo) 

Women's team: Nicol David, Sharon Wee,  

Tricia Chuah, Delia Arnold (squash) 

Leadership: Rosmanizam Abdullah (cricket) 

Special: Chin Mee Keong (MTA) and the late S. Satgunam (MHF)