National Karatekas Wrapped With Fifth Rank At The 10th SEAKF Championship; "It Was A Good Experience" Says Shahmalarani

Great beginning✨

Our national karate team has successfully claimed the fifth rank at the 10th Southeast Asia Karate Federation (SEAKF) Championship, which was held in the Philippines. The karatekas are now all set to rock the upcoming Southeast Asian (SEA) Games in Cambodia.

They made Malaysia proud by wrapping up the three-day tournament in Manila, the Philippines with three gold, five silver and five bronze medals.

The three gold medalist are S. Geerijaieswaran Pillai (Men’s 67kg), Siti Nur Azwani Nor Azli (Women’s 61kg) and Muhammad Arif Afifuddin (Men’s 75kg) that all came from Kumite discipline (sparring) events.

Meanwhile, our SEA Games champion, C. Shahmalarani, bagged the silver medal. Furthermore, the Malaysia Games (Sukma) 55-kg men’s champion, K. Thevendran, also clinched a silver in the men’s senior category and a bronze in the under-21 category, while the men’s kumite team also delivered a silver medal.

Muhammad Isyraf Faiz Mohd Ismifarizal (men’s cadet 70kg) and Muhammad Arash Sirajudeen (men’s 84kg) contributed a bronze medal each. In the Kata discipline events, Muhammad Aiqal Asmadie sealed two silver medals in the men’s senior and U-21, while Lovelly Anne Robberth won a bronze in the U-21 women’s event. Meanwhile, the women’s team finished up the game with another bronze medal.

S. Sukumaran, the team manager remarked that the national team would work on fueling up their strategies before the SEA Games happening on May.

“The athletes tried their best, but still need to improve a lot as we try to reach our optimum level. We have to improve in the technical part, and we hope to achieve better results in the SEA Games,” the team manager firmly said.

Varnam Malaysia had the pleasure catching up with Hat-Trick scorer, Shahmalarani Chandran, who is also the Silver medalist in this 10th Southeast Asia Karate Federation (SEAKF) Championship.

Curiously asked how she felt about winning a silver medal in this tournament, the 25-year-old young lass said it was a good experience for her.

“I eagerly wanted to fight with Junna Tsukii -Philippines for so long (she is a world champion). I was confident enough to face her, but the tactical strategy should have been better to handle her game plans,” she said, noting that she had discovered her weakness, which she said was much-needed learning for her in regards to the Sea Games.

“Overall, I was satisfied too, as my previous games were quite clean wins of 11-4 and 8-0,” the passionate karate athlete expressed.

Speaking about the upcoming Sea Games, Shahmalarani highlighted, “Definitely to defend my gold medal, I would consider this as a wonderful tryout for me to face them in the Sea Games.”