Pride and joy: Qabil Ambak being greeted by his wife and children upon arrival at KLIA. — Bernama
SEPANG: National rider Qabil Ambak, hinted that he would say goodbye to the sport after successfully fulfilling his dream of winning the individual dressage gold at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
The 43-year-old athlete admitted that he was ‘tired’ of working hard for the country for so long, besides taking into account his advancing age and wanting to spend more time with his family after this.
“I think it’s been a long time in this sport, 28 years and I feel tired, but Alhamdulillah, every time I compete, I don’t go home empty-handed,” said Qabil on his return at Kuala Lumpur International Airport yesterday.
“I’ve participated in the Asian Games six times and finally after waiting for a long time I won gold. Thank you to my parents who have given me a lot of support and encouragement since I was 10 years old regardless of money, without them none of this would have happened,” he said.
At the same time, Qabil said he will not compete in the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris after missing several previous qualifying events.However, the Kuala Lumpur-born athlete is not at all sorry for the decision because participating in the Olympic Games consumes a lot of money in addition to facing tough competition to challenge for the medal position.In the meantime, he hoped that the parties involved including the Equestrian Association of Malaysia (EAM) would draw up a long-term plan in an effort to unearth new talent in the sport so that equestrian continues to bring proud success to the country.
On Sept 28, Qabil made proud history when he won Malaysia’s first gold in equestrian at the Asian Games.
The competition at the Tonglu Equestrian Center saw Qabil and his horse Rosenstolz collecting a total of 75,780 points, thereby eliminating the defending champion Jacqueline Siu of Hong Kong who had to settle for silver (73,450 points), while India’s Anush Agarwalla took home the bronze (73,030 points).
Qabil was the silver medalist in the 2018 edition in Jakarta-Palembang, Indonesia and collected two bronzes each in the 2010 edition in Guangzhou, China and the 2006 edition in Doha, Qatar in the same event.
Meanwhile, EAM president Tan Sri Dr Abdul Aziz Abdul Rahman was grateful that his investment of RM100,000 to bring Qabil’s horse to Hangzhou from Europe bore fruit with historic success in China.
Aziz also said EAM would request the help of the Youth and Sports Ministry to get at least three horses of quality breeds in an effort to help their athletes clinch more victories on the international stage. — Bernama
