KUCHING: Sarawak throw specialist Jonah Chang Rigan’s joy at winning the men’s discus gold at the 2024 Malaysia Games (SUKMA) today turned to dismay when he found out that people preferred to focus on the incentives he will get rather than on his performance.
Despite the cold and wet conditions due to heavy rain, the 21-year-old had no problem hurling the discus to a distance of 46.16 metres (m) for his second – and Sarawak’s third – gold in track and field.
But even his two-gold achievement could not mask his disappointment after learning about what others were interested in when talking about him.
“Frankly, many talk about money only, not my performance. I don’t like that. Actually, I compete for Sarawak only,” he said after his win, leaving Negeri Sembilan Riess William Ling (44.77m) to take silver and Perlis’ Rizad Azri Che Radzi (41.42m) to settle for bronze.
Jonah, who delivered Sarawak’s first athletics gold when he won the shot put event with a Games record throw of 17.66m on Monday (Aug 19), said he was pleased with his performance today as he had to battle the elements and the slippery surface.
“Today was very good although the weather wasn’t so good. But the spirit to fight for Sarawak is always there in me. I didn’t bother about slippery surface, I just wanted to give it my best. I want to thank everyone who have helped me get through the recovery process for my shoulder injury.
“It (shoulder) is better now. The other day (on Monday), it was very painful, but now I can push harder a bit more,” said Jonah, who will be going for a hattrick of gold medals when he competes in the hammer throw event at the biennial Games on Friday (Aug 23).
However, he prefers to play down his chances of a hammer gold as he expects a strong challenge from Rizad Azri.
“I am not sure (about a third gold medal) because the hammer throw is the pet event of the athlete from Perlis who got a bronze (in the discus event) earlier. So, we can’t expect too much on Friday. It’s going to be massive fight between Perlis and Sarawak (athletes), so good luck,” he said.
Jonah said his main target on Friday is to hurl the hammer to a distance of 55m and improve on his personal best of 53.54m set in Terengganu in July.
Earlier, Federal Territories’ Kok Hui Ying won the women’s 10,000m race walk gold medal in 57 minutes and 41.79 seconds (s), followed by teammate P. Kaarthiyani (58:09.69s) and Kedah’s Nur Damea Balqisya Mohammad Idzwan (58:38.80s).
