KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia must learn from Thailand and Indonesia to improve their competitiveness at the next Asian Para Games after finishing 12th overall at the Aichi-Nagoya edition with six golds, eight silvers and 13 bronzes.
Paralympic Council of Malaysia (PCM) president Datuk Seri Megat D Shahriman Zaharudin said the two Southeast Asian nations had finished in the top 10, setting a benchmark for Malaysia.
"We achieved our six-gold target. Although our contingent was small, we still managed to meet the target and record an outstanding achievement.
"I believe Malaysia must match Thailand and Indonesia, who finished in the top 10. Perhaps their larger contingents helped them achieve those positions. We also need to learn from their formula and strategies," he said during a press conference on the Malaysian contingent's performance at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Para Games, which concluded on Saturday after seven days of competition.
China topped the medal table with 207 golds, 117 silvers and 111 bronzes, followed by Japan (64-60-62) and Uzbekistan (45-49-51).
Thailand (19-40-66) and Indonesia (15-21-37) finished seventh and eighth respectively.
Malaysia sent 68 athletes to compete in 94 events across 10 of the 18 sports contested, making it the country's smallest contingent at the Asian Para Games.
Malaysia's six gold medals came from five sports, with two won in para athletics.
Wong Kar Gee won the men's long jump T12 (visual impairments), while Abdul Latif Romly topped the men's long jump T20 (intellectual impairments).
The para badminton pair of Cheah Liek Hou and Faris Azri won the men's doubles SU5 title, while para track cyclist Zuhairie Ahmad Tarmizi claimed gold in the men's 1,000m time trial C4-C5.
The other two gold medals came from Bonnie Bunyau Gustin in the men's under-72kg powerlifting event and swimmer Nur Syaiful Zulkafli in the men's100m breaststroke SB4.
Meanwhile, National Sports Council (NSC) director-general Arrifin Ghani said the athletes' overall performance had improved compared with the Hangzhou 2022 edition.
"We are grateful that we managed to meet our gold medal target. Overall, the athletes performed well and, in percentage terms, this edition's achievement was better than in Hangzhou four years ago," he said.
Arrifin said the NSC would work with the PCM and the National Sports Institute (NSI) to strengthen programmes and assess which sports had the potential to deliver more medals at next year's Asean Para Games on home soil and the 2028 Los Angeles Paralympics. - BERNAMA
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