Water in the way: Selangor’s Esther Joy Chen Hong Li competing in the girls’ 3,000m steeplechase final at the Sarawak Stadium in Petra Jaya. — KAMARUL ARIFFIN/TheStar
Triathlete to quit track and field after last gold quest
IT’S her final dance, both in the Malaysia Games (Sukma) and track athletics, and Esther Joy Chen Hong Li is planning to live up to her name and make it a truly joyful one.
After bagging the 5,000m gold medal on Monday, the 21-year-old continued blazing the track at the Sarawak Stadium in Petra Jaya by winning the 3,000m steeplechase gold yesterday. She will run the 10,000m today and hopes to go out with her third and final gold medal.
The national triathlete is quitting track and field after this.
“I am going to close the running chapter for good after this. I will compete in road races to aid my triathlon training but no more track events,” she said after her steeplechase win.
The win was not easy though. She fell in the final lap but managed to shake off the shock and went on to breast the tape.
“That fall kind of took me aback, but I immediately told myself I had a race to finish and a gold to win for my state,” said Esther.
“In the last Games in 2022, I won the steeplechase silver, so I wanted to win gold. I hope to end my Sukma campaign by winning a gold in the 10,000m,’’ said Esther, who was a wushu exponent in the 2018 Sukma in Perak.
She finished fourth in the competition and was part of the National Sports Council’s wushu programme but when Covid-19 struck, she lost touch with the sport and decided to take up running instead.
In 2020, she did cross country and in 2022, she decided to take up triathlon and did not look back.
“My main focus is triathlon, but the sport is not in Sukma. I do want to compete for Selangor. So my options were running, cycling or swimming and my best out of the three was running. I gave it a shot and it seems to be working out fine.
“I have to thank coach Aldrin Yeo for helping me out with my preparations. I did two months of training and it feels amazing to see the outcome in Kuching.
“But this will be my last track event and I stand a better chance with triathlon. I get bored doing one sport. Three is a lot more entertaining.”
Meanwhile, Sarawak’s Ng Jin Xuan took the girls’ javelin gold by recording a throw of 45.12m.
She also broke the Games record after 16 years. The previous record was held by Ho Sin Hui, also from Sarawak, who recorded 44.98m at the 2008 Terengganu Sukma.
The silver medal went to Terengganu’s Noor Aliya Alias (39.11m) and Sabah’s Maryjane Juberin took bronze (39.01m).
