Sports

Monday July 27, 2009

Karate mum Vasantha makes successful comeback

By LIM TEIK HUAT

PETALING JAYA: Karate exponent Vasantha Marial (pic) is now a mother to a five-month-old girl but she is still capable of socking it to her opponents as proved by her commendable comeback to competition at the KOI World Cup, which ended in Kuching yesterday.

The 30-year-old, who was taking part in her first competition for more than a year, fought her way to the final of the women’s below 53kg kumite event before going down 5-6 in sudden-death to Russian exponent Anna.

But Vasantha was not to be denied glory as she secured gold in the women’s senior team event.

Competing under Malaysia Team B, Vasantha, Jamaliah Jamaluddin and A. Nisha beat the Malaysia Team A combination of G. Vathana, G. Yugneswary and Asian junior champion C. Maalini 2-0 in the final.

While Vasantha did not win an individual title, she had certainly given a good account of herself by fending off the challenges from her younger team-mates en route to making the final.

It was no mean feat as Vasantha got married in March last year and stopped training after she got pregnant. She only resumed training with the national squad three months ago and spent a longer time than the others in the gymnasium to bring down her weight to make the entry for the below 53kg class.

“My performance was okay but it could have been better. The Russian was not that tough a fighter and I could have taken her on anytime if I was in better condition.

“But I am still happy with what I managed as this is only my first competition after more than one year.

“I am certainly on the right track,” said the gutsy Vasantha, who hopes to improve further in the next two months in her bid to defend her Asian title in China in September.

There were cheers for the hosts when the Jamaluddin siblings — Shaharudin and Jamaliah — came out tops in their respective men’s below 72.5kg and women’s above 60kg kumite finals.

Malaysia had representatives in three other individual finals but settled for silver medal finishes.

The three other silver medals came from seasoned campaigner R. Puvaneswaran (men’s below 65kg, Jayaseelan (men’s below 80kg) and G. Vathana (women’s below 60kg).

Top Malaysian kata exponents Tan Chee Sheng and Lim Lee Lee won their respective individual categories on Saturday.

The outstanding performances helped Malaysia to pip Russia to emerge overall champions in the three-day championships.

Despite not having the services of Asian champions Lim Yoke Wai and G. Yamini, Malaysia finished with a total haul of 13-16-26. Russia were placed second with a 13-10-7 haul.

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