PHNOM PENH: National hammer thrower Jackie Wong (pix) relinquished his grip on the gold medal after it was snatched away by arch nemesis Kittipong Boonmawan of Thailand in controversial fashion on the opening day of the athletics event in the 2023 SEA Games at the Morodok Techo National Stadium, here, today.
The Malaysian’s 64.20-metre (m) effort in his third out of six attempts was nowhere near the 64.49m Kittipong achieved in his third attempt and it was enough for the Thai to wrest the gold from Jackie to repeat the feat he achieved in the 2019 edition in the Philippines.
However, the drama unfolded when Jackie, who also won gold in the event in the 2017 edition in Kuala Lumpur, claimed that he managed to hurl the hammer to a distance of 64.64m in his sixth and final throw before it was rejected following a technical error by the judges.
The national athletics camp’s representatives lodged a protest but Jackie said the judges decided that Kittipong be crowned as champion.
“We filed a protest and launched an appeal. The judges said they were going to view the video but did not show it to us and just rejected our appeal. How can that be? That’s unfair.
“I cannot accept that decision because they did not give a strong enough reason (for rejecting our protest),” he told reporters, here, today.
A disappointed Jackie hopes that chef de mission Datuk Mohd Nasir Ali will take note of the incident to prevent a recurrence.
Meanwhile, Malaysia’s Sadat Marzuqi Ajisan took home bronze in the men’s hammer event with his final attempt of 59.76m. -Bernama