BIRMINGHAM – Teenage national judo exponent Amir Daniel Abdul Majeed celebrated his Commonwealth Games debut with a bronze medal at Birmingham 2022 today.
The 18-year-old Penang Matriculation College student was handed the bronze medal in the 73kg category at the Coventry Arena after his opponent, Dato Matsoukatov of Cyprus, was disqualified for violating the rules of the competition.
Earlier, in the round of 16, Amir defeated Samoa’s William Tai Tin 10-0. Then, in the quarter-finals, the Malaysian lost to Australian Jake Bensted after being handed a penalty.
Amir, however, bounced back from the defeat to overcome Narciso Mato of Mozambique 10-0 in the repechage to set up the bronze medal bout against Matsoukatov.
National judo coach Md Nashriq Md Nassir hailed Amir’s achievement and attributed the exponent’s victory to sheer hard work.
“This success is also the result of the efforts of all parties involved to raise the standard of judo in Malaysia,” he said, adding that the bronze medal was the national judo squad’s best achievement since they first competed in the Games in the 2014 edition in Glasgow, Scotland.
Amir had also won bronze in the SEA Games in Hanoi, Vietnam in May.
In the 2014 edition of the Commonwealth Games, all three Malaysian exponents were eliminated in the early rounds. – Bernama, August 3, 2022
