The experience of Qabil Ambak Mahmud Fathil was felt at the 3Q Equestrian Centre in Rawang on Saturday (26 Aug) when he led the Malaysian show jumping team to the gold medal.
It was the nation’s fifth gold in equestrian in the Kuala Lumpur 2017 Games and Qabil’s 11th in the biennial series since coming out of retirement recently.
But most importantly, it was Malaysia’s first gold in team show jumping since the 2007 Korat SEA Games in Thailand.
However, the 37-year-old Qabil Ambak could not have done it all alone. He had the Ratnasingham siblings Sharmini Christina and Neelan Jonathan, together with Praveen Nair Mathavan to steer the team out of the woods after Malaysia, Thailand and Philippines were tied with eight faults each after two rounds of competition.
And the Malaysians rose to the occasion to perform a clean run in the jump-off and took a combined time of 123.58s to end the country’s 10-year wait for the team show jumping gold.
Sharmini and her younger brother Neelan along with Qabil Ambak and Praveen did not make a single mistake in the jump-off as the Philippines accumulated 12 faults while Thailand took third with 15 faults.
“I am really excited in this moment of glory for Malaysia,” said Sharmini, who suffered a knee injury after falling off of her horse, Arcado L, in Switzerland last year and only returned to competition this year after undergoing surgery.
