KUALA LUMPUR – Signing off from his final Malaysian Games (Sukma) appearance, national long jumper Andre Anura Anuar leaves the Bukit Jalil National Stadium with two gold medals to his name.
The Sabah athlete added another medal to his tally today after winning the men’s triple jump event with a result of 16.43m, some distance ahead of second place Muhammad Izzul Haniff Mohd Raffi of Selangor, whose result was 15.56m.
Andre’s first gold came yesterday when he claimed the win at the men’s long jump event after clearing a distance of 7.40m.
Dedicating his final Sukma gold medals to Sabah, Andre said he is pleased with his last outing at the national games.
“These medals are for Sabah, everyone there has been supporting me so much and I am happy I can give them a reason to celebrate.
“This year’s performance is an improvement from the previous edition where I won a gold and a silver medal,” said the 23-year-old from Tenom.
At the 2018 Perak Sukma Games, Andre won the triple jump event with a distance of 15.91m and came in second for the long jump with a result of 7.39m.
Andre, who currently holds the long jump national record at 8.02m, which he set in 2019 at the Philippines SEA Games, said he will be shifting his focus to the triple jump event.
“This Sukma Games is my final competition for this year, after this, I will be back to conditioning and preparing for international games next year.
“The earliest would be the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games where I would only be competing in the triple jump event,” he added.
With his result of 16.43m today at the triple jump, Andre is slowly inching closer to the national record of 16.77m, which was set by Muhammad Hakimi Ismail at the 2017 edition of the SEA Games in Kuala Lumpur.
Andre’s performance at the 2022 SEA Games triple jump event won him the gold medal after he recorded a distance of 16.21m.
He added that the Covid-19 pandemic did not faze him during the preparations for this year’s international games.
“For the SEA Games, Commonwealth Games, and Sukma Games, I was not mentally affected by the pandemic. I just followed the training programme we had and used it as my guide.
“Even though we could not go outside to train, our coaches made sure we were properly guided by having exercises for us to follow indoors,” he said. – The Vibes, September 17, 2022
