KUCHING: Selangor had to overcome a vociferous home crowd to defend their gold medal in the men's golf team event at the Sarawak Malaysia Games (Sukma) today.
Poon Jia Hao, Ajmal Amin Fajri, Ezekiel Riz Hafi Suzearitz and Austin Gan won gold after posting a three-round total of 659 at the Sarawak Golf Club in Petra Jaya
Sarawak's Anson Yeo, Joshua Lim, Cayden Kong and Wesley Chai won silver after shooting 666 while Perak's Andrew Yap, Lim Hao Yu, Rafiq Nadzmi Ramlan and Aiden Tai completed the podium on 669.
The vocal Sarawak crowd put pressure on the Selangor team but Jia Hao was happy that he and his teammates were able to remain focused.
"The Sarawak team came with a lot of supporters and they were making a lot of noise on the course. It was pretty stressful.
"But I'm happy that we all played our game and pulled through, we all did our part today," said Jia Hao who will turn 20 in October.
He added that it was their target to defend the gold they had won during the 2022 Kuala Lumpur Sukma.
"We have a very balanced team, others might have one or two better players but as a team, we put together a strong performance.
"During training at Kelab Golf Negara Subang, gold was always on our mind and I'm happy we managed to achieve it.
"I am very proud to have defended the gold, especially as this is my last Sukma.
"I hope these guys will continue to carry the Selangor flag in the future. I also hope we will contend for more individual titles in future editions of Sukma," added Jia Hao.
In the women's team category, Perak's (Wang Xin Yao, Nur Diana Syafiqah Abdullah, Siti Nur Husna Abd Karim Nastx, Nurul Adawiyah Abdul Jalil) won gold with a three-round total of 676.
Selangor (Aarthi Ganesan, Foong Zi Yu, Batrisya Balqis Abdul Ghani, G. Kaathiyayani) and Sarawak (Mirabel Ting, Sharifah Aiysyah Tijan Syed Fazil, Abigail Kedung Pearson) both finished on 688 but Selangor claimed silver on countback.