THOUGH pleased with his charges' recent performances, national karate coach R. Puvaneswaran has warned against complacency ahead of the Vietnam Sea Games on May 12-23.
The squad's preparations are looking good after winning five gold, three silver and four bronze medals against their regional counterparts at the Southeast Asian Karate Federation (SEAKF) Championships in Cambodia last month.
Puvaneswaran, however, played down the result.
"We have been assessing our athletes since the National Championships earlier this year, as well as the SEAKF Championships, where we did well," said Puvaneswaran in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
"It (SEAKF performance) will give our athletes the drive to do better at the Sea Games.
"But the SEAKF Championships and the Sea Games are totally different (for exponents) in terms of emotion, competition pressure and judging (standards).
"We have assessed our rivals at SEAKF, however, not all were at their peak. It was the same with us.
"And not all countries had sent their top exponents. Most of them were a mixture of their Sea Games and backup exponents.
"We cannot be satisfied with the SEAKF result and have to continue working hard to improve in terms of skill and tactics."
Team manager Razlan Shah Rabii disclosed that the Malaysian Karate Federation have set a three-gold target for the Sea Games.
The target is slightly lower than the four gold and four silver haul Malaysia achieved at the 2019 Philippines Sea Games.
"The target is three gold this time because several men's individual events have been dropped. There will only be four men's individual categories (five previously) and one team event," said Razlan.
"We are expecting the medals to come from the Kumite discipline."
Puvaneswaran believes it is a realistic target, though he is wary of possible biased judging when competing against the hosts.
"I think it is an achievable target because we had won three gold from Kumite in 2019," added Puvaneswaran.
"We have to expect the worst (when it comes to judging). I was one of the exponents who competed at the 2003 Vietnam Sea Games, and if not mistaken, the hosts dominated the sport," said Puvaneswaran.
"I don't think that situation will repeat itself again. However, we are prepared to face anything in Vietnam."
S. Prem Kumar (men's under-60kg), R. Sharmendran (under-75kg), P. Madhuri (women's under-55kg), M. Mathivani (under-61kg) and newcomer C. Shahmalarani (under-50kg) have been confirmed for the Sea Games.
Prem, Sharmendran and Madhuri were gold medallists in 2019.
The exponents for the men's under-84kg, women's under-68kg and above-84kg have yet to be finalised.