THE blood, sweat and tears shed by national karate exponent R. Sharmendran in the lead up to the Philippines Sea Games paid dividends in a big way after a successful title defence in Manila yesterday.
Sharmendran was just too good for his opponent Songvut Muntaen of Thailand in the men’s Under-75kg kumite final as the Malaysian won 3-0 at the World Trade Centre.
A jubilant Sharmendran disclosed that the gold he won was the most valuable in his career following the challenges he had faced in the run-up to the games.
“This win definitely means a lot to me,” said Sharmendran.
“I suffered a (right) knee injury in December last year and had to undergo surgery where the doctors had to drill into my cartilage to fix it.
“I was out for eight months and did not know whether I would be able to fight in the Sea Games. It wasn’t easy watching others in training while I was injured.
“I have to thank (former national coach) Andris Vasiljevs for helping me with my preparation. I was in Latvia to train and compete for 60 days where Vasiljevs took care of me despite not being part of the team anymore.
“I also have to thank coach S. Mahendran who has been grooming me since I was little as well as the Malaysian Karate Federation (MAKAF) for helping me with funding.”
Malaysia bagged another gold medal yesterday in the men’s team kata event through Hoe Thomson, Ivan Oh and Emmanuel Leong, who defeated Indonesia in the final.
The trio’s routine scored 25.4 to Indonesia’s 23.98.
“We trained together for two years just to perform well in these five minutes, thank God we won gold,” said Emmanuel.
Malaysia won four gold in total in the sport this time, exceeding their three-gold target.
P. Madhuri (women’s Under-55kg kumite) and S. Prem Kumar (men’s Under-55kg) were the other gold medallists.