A future star, Muhammad Rasdenal Bin Haikal shined in the Malaysian National Games

The Malaysian National Games was held in Johor Bahru where several of their future stars shined in the competition. Malaysia’s best talent, ASBC Asian Youth Boxing Championships quarter-finalist Muhammad Rasdenal Bin Haikal dominated the flyweight (52kg) in the Games and proved that his development in continuous.

Sukma is the Malaysian name of their National Games which holds every two years for the country’s talents. The Games is an U22 event for those who has just left the youth age group and could be their next elite team members in the future. The Malaysians returned to the national competitions on this event following their training camps and sparring events.

The Majlis Sukan Negera became the best team in the National Games achieving four gold medals out of the nine. The island of Penang is a very active boxing region in Malaysia which earned also two gold medals and became runner-up in the Games. Teams from Selangor, Melaka and Terengganu won the remaining gold medals in the event where altogether 16 teams achieved at least one bronze.

The first gold medal of the Malaysian National Games was achieved by Quaiyum Bin Ariffin of Majlis Sukan Negera following his impressive performance in the final of the light flyweight (49kg). He defeated an international level boxer, Pavithran Rajini Kanth in one of the highest quality bouts of the final day and he proved that could be enough strong to compete at the ASBC Asian U22 Boxing Championships later this year.

Muhammad Rasdenal Bin Haikal is the main Malaysian future hope who has done impressive performance in the recent four years. He was quarter-finalist at the Bangkok 2018 ASBC Asian Youth Boxing Championships and dominated all of his recent national events. Rasdenal controlled all of the three rounds against Sabah’s Mohamad Haikal Bin Hassim in the final of the men’s flyweight (52kg).

Penang Youth International Tournament winner Sheikh Rahmatullah Bin Ibrahim attended several national events in the recent four years and at the Taipei City Box Cup in 2019. The experienced talent was too smart for Mohamad Amran Bin Ab Ghani of Kelantan in the final of the bantamweight (56kg) which he won by unanimous decision.

Terengganu’s Amirul Hakim Bin Sakala won the flyweight (52kg) at the 2018 Malaysian National Games and returned to the top of the podium at the lightweight (60kg) in the new edition after beating Abdul Shukur Bin Azarludin of Selangor. He competed international events out of Malaysia and he is aiming for a place also in their elite national team.

Melaka’s lone gold medal was taken by Muhammad Saiful Idham Bin Azuan who defeated Perak’s Ze Xiang at the light welterweight (64kg). Halim Izani Bin Sulaiman achieved his second gold medal in the National Games following his first in 2018. He moved up to the welterweight (69kg) where he stopped Johor’s Muhammad Zulfaqqar Bin Sulaiman by RSC in the final.  

List of the winners in the Malaysian U22 National Games
49kg: Quaiyum Bin Ariffin
52kg: Muhamad Rasdenal Bin Haikal
56kg: Sheikh Rahmatullah Bin Ibrahim
60kg: Amirul Hakim Bin Sakala
64kg: Muhammad Saiful Idham Bin Azuan
69kg: Halim Izani Bin Sulaiman
75kg: Ng Zhang Zheng
81kg: Danaraj Anantha Selvam
91kg: Amir Afnan Bin Azani

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