21/02/2026

SPORTS SATURDAY | FEB 21, 2026

31

Muay Thai aim for four golds

RESULTS & STANDINGS

SHORTS Zakry aiming high

EU R OPA LEAGUE (Playoffs, 1st leg) : Fenerbahce 0 Nottingham Forest 3 (Murillo 21, Igor Jesus 43, Gibbs White 50) , B rann 0 B ologna 1 (Castro 9) , Dinamo Zagreb 1 (Beljo 44) Genk 3 (Heynen 15, El Ouahdi 21, 90) , PAOK 1 (Jeremejeff 77) Celta Vigo 2 (Aspas 34, Swedberg 43) , Panathinaikos 2 (Tetteh 31, 61) Viktoria Plzen 2 (Visinsky 11, Ladra 80) , Ludogorets R azgrad 2 (Duah 24, Son 67) Ferencvaros 1 (Yusuf 27) , Celtic 1 (Nygren 21) S tuttgart 4 (El Khannouss 15, 28, Leweling 57, Tiago Tomas 90+3) , Lille 0 R ed S tar B elgrade 1 (Tebo Uchenna 45+1) . CONFE R ENCE LEAGUE (Playoffs, 1st leg) : KuP S 0 Lech Poznan 2 (Kozubal 9, Ismaheel 41) , Noah 1 (Hambardzum yan 53) AZ Alkmaar 0, S igma Olomouc 1 (Sturm 58) Lausanne 1 (Butler-Oyedeji 22) , Zrinjski 1 (Abramovic 55) Crystal Palace 1 (Sarr 44), Drita 2 (Krasniqi 59, Balaj 75) Celje 3 (Kucys 19, Avdyli 41, Poplatnik 90+4) , Jagiellonia 0 Fiorentina 3 (Ranieri 53, Mandragora 65, Piccoli 81-pen) , S hkendija 0 S amsunspor 1 (Mouandilmadji 77) , Omonoia Nicosia 0 R ijeka 1 (Adu-Adjei 86) .

THE Malaysian Muay Thai Association (PMM) is targeting four gold medals at the 2027 SEA Games, which Malaysia will host. Its president, Datuk Muhammad Shahnaz Azmi, said 14 categories had been proposed for competition, including those that delivered gold medals for Malaysia at last year’s SEA Games in Thailand. “So, for us to become overall champi ons, it is very important from a technical standpoint to select categories that we can win,” he said after a working commit tee meeting at the National Sports Council (NSC) in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur, yesterday. “Obviously, we cannot win all, but if we want to defeat Thailand, we need a strat egy

“We will not include all the categories contested in Thailand, we will focus on the lighter categories where we have the potential to win medals.” He said apart from fielding promising youth athletes, PMM was also prepared to feature national standouts, including world champion Mohd Rifdean Masdor, Ahmad Nor Iman Aliff Rakib and Ahmad Adam Rakib at the biennial Games. For the record, Malaysia returned with three gold, three silver and four bronze medals at the last edition, surpassing the initial target of one gold. The impressive achievement marked a significant improvement for the national camp after managing only one gold and one silver at the 2021 edition in Vietnam, while Muay Thai was not contested at the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games. – Bernama

NEW national badminton women’s doubles coach Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif aims to produce a world-class pair within the next two years. To achieve this, he intends to close the gap between the national women’s doubles pairs and Pearly Tan-M Thinaah, who are among the world’s top pairs. “From what I can see, our cur rent women’s doubles shuttlers do have potential. In fact, several pairs are on the rise. “So, I’m confident that in a year or two, InsyaAllah , we will have the next Pearly-Thinaah,” he said after conducting his first training session with the national squad yesterday. Mohd Zakry is one of the coaches appointed by the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) to strengthen the national squad’s coaching lineup. Meanwhile, Mohd Zakry admits to being thrilled to rejoin BAM after 12 years, although he now shoul ders a different responsibility and role. Rachel through to last eight in Cincinnati NATIONAL squash player Rachel Arnold cruised into the quarter finals of the Cincinnati Gaynor Cup 2026 with an easy win over Egypt’s Menna Hamid in Cincinnati, United States, on Thursday. World No. 24 Rachel, who received a first-round bye, took just 22 minutes to dispose of Menna 11-3, 11-7, 11-4 and set up a daunt ing quarterfinal date against top seed Georgina Kennedy of England. Georgina had earlier disposed of Malaysia’s Noor Ainaa Amani Ampandi, the SEA Games Thailand 2025 gold medallist, 11-8, 11-8, 11 4 in just 24 minutes. The Cincinnati Gaynor Cup 2026 is a Professional Squash Association (PSA) World Tour Silver-level tour nament, offering a total prize money of USD86,250 (RM338,000). New home for Immigration FC IMMIG R ATION FC will use the Tuanku Syed Putra Stadium in Kangar as their new home ground for the remainder of the 2025-2026 Malaysia League (M-League) matches, effective immediately. The team had previously used the Penang State Stadium in Batu Kawan as its home base. This was confirmed by the Malaysian Football League (MFL) in a statement uploaded to Facebook on Thursday. “Immigration FC applied for this change of venue and the MFL approved it after conducting a venue inspection on Feb 4. This is because the original venue can no longer hold night matches,” it added. Meanwhile, the MFL said that all Kelantan FC’s home matches dur ing this Ramadan month will be played at the Selayang Municipal Council Stadium in Selangor, instead of the Sultan Muhammad IV Stadium in Kota Bharu. “This is due to the Kelantan State Gazette, which has stipulated that no sports or entertainment activities are allowed in the state throughout the Ramadan month,” it added.

Lee Chong Wei speaks during a press conference yesterday. – BERNAMAPIC

Slowly but surely

Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin join Thomas Cup preparation, Zii Jia and Jin Wei decision soon N ATIONAL men’s doubles professional pair Goh Sze Fei and Nur Izzuddin Rumsani have agreed to join the national squad in preparation for the Thomas Cup badminton tournament in Horsens, Denmark, in April. to think it over. We hope he can join the team,” he said when met at the Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Kuala Lumpur yesterday. Earlier, Zii Jia, his coach Liew Darren and Jin Wei held an hour-long meeting with Chong Wei regarding their participation in the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup Finals from April 24-May 3. discussed with Zii Jia just now and we hope he can take good care of himself and have someone monitoring him. The physio and everything is very important for an athlete’s career. “For me, I hope he can go back to NSI and see what they can help him with. But it depends on his team.

This was confirmed by national doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky, who added that Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin might even stay around until the 2026 Asian Games in Japan from Sept 19 Oct 4. “Yes, they have replied… In fact, even until the Asian Games,” he said. While Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin have replied in the affirmative, the participation of professional shuttlers Lee Zii Jia (men’s singles) and Goh Jin Wei (women’s singles) in the national squad for the Thomas Cup is expected to be decided within a week. Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) Performance Committee chairman Datuk Seri Lee Chong Wei said several matters need to be finalised between Zii Jia’s camp and BAM before any decision can be reached. “We have discussed it, and he asked for a week

“He did not say there were any issues when he went to NSI before, but I told him he can meet the director or the doctor and discuss his current condition,” said Chong Wei. Apart from the injury, several other matters were discussed, although Chong Wei declined to elaborate. Still, he expressed hope that Zii Jia would accept BAM’s invitation, with the association prepared to do their best to meet his requests. “We did discuss some terms and I have given him feedback. I have already spoken to the president and our council. “I told Zii Jia I hope he understands that we now have new management and a new president. The president will speak to me about what we can offer him. This is something we are discussing for this year’s Thomas Cup,” he added. – Bernama

After the meeting, Chong Wei said Zii Jia’s recent injury that saw him withdrawing from next week’s German Open was not serious. There was initially some concern within the national camp as Zii Jia was expected to play a key role in Malaysia’s Thomas Cup campaign. Drawing from his own experience as a former player, Chong Wei said he understood the nature of Zii Jia’s injury, describing it as something that would flare up from time to time. He, however, advised the shuttler to seek further assessment at the National Sports Institute (NSI) to ensure he would receive the best possible treatment ahead of the Thomas Cup. “It is not quite serious. I think it is on and off issue with his injury and we hope he can recover well,” said Chong Wei. “As athletes, we all go through this. I also

Performance tops age when it comes to diving: Low MALAY S IA AQUATIC S (MAS) has acknowledged concerns over the stagnation of several senior national divers while stressing that perform ance remains the key criterion for retaining athletes in the pro gramme. (MQS), adding that attitude and work ethic are crucial factors. “To move forward, they have to change their attitude. They have to train hard, listen to their coaches and achieve their KPIs (key perform ance indicators),” he said after a working committee meeting at the National Sports Council (NSC) in Bukit Jalil yesterday. training, you have to do what your challengers are doing. “The world champions are now 14-year-olds and 16-year-olds… If you want to be there, you have to train like them, train just as hard, perform just as well,” he added. Meanwhile, Andy said yester

“We have proof that the new ath letes (swimmers) are capable of reaching the podium at the 2027 SEA Games. “For diving, it’s the same. We also improved,” he said. Andy said MAS will make an offi cial announcement regarding the appointment of foreign coaches for the national diving and swimming squads once all processes are final ised. – Bernama

Its secretary-general, Andy Low, said the federation is implementing adjustments in training and pro gramming to help divers improve their Minimum Qualifying Scores

day’s meeting resulted in several key decisions regarding athlete selection and programme restruc turing.

“As an athlete, you want to go up high and you want to continue