THE STAR (Saturday 03rd November 2007). Congratulations to Aimi, QP wearer, for being the first Malaysian female Gold Medal Winner, at the 8th Asean Kendo Championship! I did it! Aimi with her gold medal. FOLLOWING a disappointing debut at the 13th World Ken-do Championships (WKC) in Taiwan last year, rookie exponent Aimi Mohd Sabri made amends with her gusty performance at the 8th Asean Kendo Championships at the Chulalongkorn University Sport Centre in Bangkok, Thailand, early last month. The 19-year-old Universiti Malaya actuarial science student bounced back strongly and emerged as the first Malaysian female exponent to clinch the gold medal in the women’s individual event at the recent regional meet. Aimi said she came back after the WKC last year with determination to improve on her performance. “I was only 18 years old then. I was the youngest participant in the world meet. However, it was a disappointing outing because I went down tamely as early as the preliminary stage,” Aimi said. Aimi admitted that she improved tremendously after sparring against the stronger male exponents during training. “They pushed me hard and the intense workouts paid dividends. In addition, I also picked up various strategies from three-day camp held over the Merdeka holiday in August,” said Aimi, the eldest of four siblings from a Malay-Japanese parentage. The Malaysia Kendo Association then invited high-ranking sensei (instructor) Sumio Yamanaka, a 7th dan master, to guide the 10 men and 5 women squad as a build up for the Asean competition. According to Malaysia team manager Christopher Wong, Yamanaka imparted various competition techniques to the national exponents. Gutsy Display: (From Left) Aimi, Nurlin, Tan and Mok moving forward to strike. “Aimi applied the finer skills that she has learned to outdo her opponents at the Asean competition,” Christopher said. Two other Japanese coaches for the Malaysia side are Sueo Toyoda (chief coach) and Hiromitsu Ishii. At the recent Asean meet, Aimi registered two convincing wins in the round robin group stage to cruise into the quarter-final. She went on to defeat three Thai contenders in the knock out stage. Aimi faced little resistance in flooring Chaowanee Wongngoen-yuang and Thipruedee Kaendiao in the quarter-final and semi-final respectively. In the final, she up-staged Urai Wannarat in a hard fought encounter for the victory. “Urai gave me a good run in the final because she engaged in a close contact battle,” Aimi said. Malaysia completed its campaign at the two-day tournament with a haul of one gold and two bronze medals. “Our women’s side accomplished their best achievement in the series of the event held once every three years,” Wong said. In their first appearance, the wo-men's team line-up of Nurlin Amirudin, 21, Ng Pui Yong, 22, Jessica Mok Yoke Pui, 19, Suan Tan, 30, and Aimi took the bronze. In the four teams women's competition, Malaysia defeated Thailand B, drew with Singapore and lost to Thailand A. Nurlin said winning the bronze was sort of a consolation for her be-low-par performance in the individual event. “Although we could have done a bit better, we lost out on the second spot to Singapore on point difference. However, we fought well as a team,” Nurlin said. It was also a meaningful morale booster for the oldest member of the side – Tan. “I used to lead a sedentary lifestyle and was out of shape. After taking up the art over the past three years, I feel that I am physically and mentally more alert. It was a great experience to be part of the team,” said Tan, a communications manager. Meanwhile, Peter Chin sprung a surprise by making it to the semi-final for a bronze medal in the men’s individual. “I was delighted that I focused to hit the target with forceful intention and retained a very good form to score points,” Chin said. After a gallant run, the 35-year-old creative director lost to the eventual winner Panyaphol Sukchai of Thailand in the semi-final. Chin said they were counting on two other Malaysian entries – Razak Wong and Lim Seng Keng – to deliver. “Although I realized that I have improved over the past three years with better reflexes and swifter moves, I did not expect to go that far,” Chin said. The men’s team certainly missed the service of Wong Thing Yuen of Sabah, who won the men’s individual in the last two editions. Ng and Razak, meanwhile, were recipients of the kendo spirit award for their energetic performance at the meet. Currently, about 70 exponents are training four times a week at the Japan Club of Kuala Lumpur at Taman Seputeh. Ishii said the young charges demonstrated very positive attitude to progress in the art. “Several of them are still young and they have the potential to progress. We realized that the Thais are still ahead of them. But, we are not too far behind and they certainly can catch up with continuous training and international competition exposure. Besides the Malaysia Open, they have been competing in the Hong Kong Open against a stronger field of competitors,” he said. Aimi, meanwhile, is setting her sights to advance to the knock-out stage at the next WKC scheduled in Brazil in 2009.