Malaysian Deaflympics contingent falls short of three-gold target, returning with one gold, two silvers and one bronze from Tokyo 2025 games
TOKYO: Chef de mission Mohd Yusri Abdul Ghani has taken full responsibility for the Malaysian contingent’s failure to achieve their three-gold target at the Deaflympics Tokyo 2025.
Malaysia concluded their campaign with one gold, two silvers and one bronze, falling short of the Malaysian Deaf Sports Association’s (MSDeaf) projection.
“My sincere apologies to all Malaysians,” said Mohd Yusri, absolving the 25 athletes of any blame for the performance.
He stated the athletes had given their best despite facing technical, psychological and physical limitations during the Games.
“Our athletes put up encouraging performances in the Jakarta SEA Deaf Games, but here, in Japan, the coach said some of them looked nervous and out of sorts when taking on much bigger and taller athletes.”
The national bowlers missed advancing in the mixed team event by a single pin on the penultimate day, eliminating Malaysia’s final medal opportunity.
Malaysia’s gold came from men’s doubles bowling, with silvers from women’s doubles bowling and men’s karate individual kumite below 84kg.
The bronze medal was secured in mixed doubles badminton, where MSDeaf had projected two additional golds.
Mohd Yusri explained the initial medal target was based on performance analysis and consideration of Japan’s cold weather conditions.
The contingent arrived in Miyoshi City on November 4 to acclimatise before the November 15-26 Games, but he felt this period proved insufficient.
He plans to discuss sending athletes to more international-standard competitions to strengthen their mental resilience.
Malaysia had won two gold medals at the 2022 Deaflympics in Brazil through women’s doubles badminton and bowling.
The MADANI Government previously approved an additional RM3 million allocation to MSDeaf for athlete training and logistics.
Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh announced incentives of RM80,000 for gold, RM40,000 for silver and RM20,000 for bronze to motivate athletes. – Bernama
