HANGZHOU: The 12th day of the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games today could not be more lovely for the Malaysian contingent as they finally hit the 27-medal target with the silver medal contributed by young kata exponent, Lovelly Anne Robberth.
In the final of the women’s individual kata final at the Linping Sports Centre Gymnasium here, the 19-year-old athlete from Penampang, Sabah, had to settle for the silver after garnering only 39.80 points against Japan’s Kiyou Shimizu, who clinched the gold with 42.60 points.
This is Shimizu’s third consecutive gold in the event, after winning it in 2014 and 2018.
The 29-year-old Shimizu is also the silver medallist in the same event at the Tokyo Olympics 2020.
The bronze was jointly won by Sakura Alforte of the Philippines and Grace Lau from Hong Kong.
Lovelly Anne’s achievement today also allowed her to match the silver medal won by Lim Lee Lee in the 2002 edition in Busan, South Korea.
The medal also ended a 13-year wait for the Malaysian karate squad to step onto the podium in the kata event at the Asian Games since Lee Lee’s bronze win in the 2010 edition in Guangzhou, China. – BERNAMA
Medal tally
| Gold | Silver | Bronze | |
| China | 176 | 96 | 53 |
| Japan | 39 | 51 | 59 |
| South Korea | 33 | 46 | 74 |
| India | 21 | 31 | 32 |
| Uzbekistan | 16 | 16 | 22 |
| Taiwan | 14 | 15 | 22 |
| Thailand | 10 | 12 | 27 |
| Bahrain | 10 | 1 | 5 |
| North Korea | 9 | 13 | 8 |
| Kazakhstan | 8 | 13 | 37 |
| Malaysia | 4 | 6 | 17 |
– BERNAMA
