Malaysia bowling boldly and closing the gap on giants

PETALING JAYA: National lawn bowls coach Fairul Izwan Abd Muin believes Malaysia are closing the gap on the sport’s traditional powerhouses after ending their Glasgow Commonwealth Games campaign with three medals.

“It was a 100% achievement in terms of reach because we qualified for the semi-finals in all our events and made two finals,” said Fairul.

Malaysia won silvers from Izzat Shameer Dzulkeple in the men’s singles, and Aleena Ahmad Nawawi and Syafiqa Haidar Afif Abdul Rahman in the women’s pairs.

Yesterday, Mohd Soufi Rusli-Amirul Danial Abdul Rahim sealed a bronze medal yesterday after edging Canada Ryan Bester-Joe Bezear 1.5-0.5 (5-4, 3-3) in the third-place playoff.

Fairul pointed out that Malaysia had outperformed the likes of Australia and New Zealand, neither of whom had a team progress beyond the semi-finals.

They are only trailing behind England, who had all their teams reach the finals.

“For now, we have learned a lot. Look at strong teams like Australia and New Zealand as none of their teams qualified for the semi-finals,” said Fairul.

“We are currently just behind England, who managed to get all their teams into the finals, whereas we had two.

“To be honest, there isn’t much difference at this level. Lawn bowls is all about the mental aspect.”

“Skill-wise, everyone is almost the same, and our players are right up there technically. What matters is during the match itself – they need to maintain concentration and be better prepared for different situations,” he said.

Looking ahead to the World Championships in July next year, Fairul said the team hoped to arrange friendly matches against top nations to sharpen their strategy.

Women’s singles player Emma Firyana Saroji had earlier exited at the semi-finals on Saturday.