AFTER an agonising 48-hour wait, Malaysia finally landed a gold medal on the ninth day of competitions at the 2023 Cambodia SEA Games through Thor Chuan Leong in the billiards & snooker competition today.
The 29th gold medal for the Malaysian camp came about when Chuan Leong defeated Thailand’s Akani Songsermsawad in the men’s singles final at the Sen Sok Aeon Mall.
Chuan Leong, who produced a splendid display in the final, edged his Thai opponent 4-1 with breaks of (74-42, 67-48, 53-72, 53-17, 63-21) to recapture the gold that he won during the 2015 SEA Games hosted by Singapore.
The bronze medal was awarded to the Malaysian Lim Kok Leong and Sophanith Men from Cambodia who were both losing semi-finalists.
Chuan Leong’s success saw the Snooker and Billiards Federation of Malaysia achieve the target of two gold medals for the SEA Games since Moh Keen Ho had already contributed the first gold medal from the 6-Red Snooker individual event on Tuesday.
Today’s gold medal was Chuan Leong’s fifth gold in the history of his participation in the SEA Games since he won the men’s doubles gold in Palembang, Indonesia 2011, singles and doubles gold medals in Singapore (2015) and 6-Red individual in Myanmar (2013).
