Published on: Sunday, November 27, 2005 |  |
Kota Kinabalu: Ronni Sapai, 27, and Roger Frederick, 34, arm-wrestled their way to gold medals in the recently held National Arm-wrestling Championship in Penang.
Apart from the Roger and Ronni, another team-mate Esmond Ampila also competed in the meet but came fourth.
Ronni won in the 85kg-category A while Roger took the 75kg-category B that saw athletes from Indonesia, Philippines, Thailand and Brunei participating. Kelantan, Trengganu, Melaka, Johor, Kedah, and Perlis also sent contestants for the championship.
There were four categories contested - A,B,C and D.
Prior to competing in Penang, Roger and Ronni participated in the State-Level Harvest Festival Arm-wrestling Championships.
Roger said in order to pursue his interest in the sport, he had to train on his own.
"Here (Sabah) arm-wrestling is only for fun, no one had ever took this event seriously," he said.
Ronni was quick to add that it was high time the sport got the proper attention from everyone.
"Although it is not easy to maintain one's form but with the help of training, vitamins and proper diet one should be able to do it," he said.
Roger said both of them would make the effort to make the sport more popular among the youth and people here.
"We have a lot of potential here in Sabah but it is just a matter of funds," Roger said.
With the assistance from the proper body, the sport in Sabah can surely make it big, Roger said.
Asked about their future plans, both Roger and Ronni said they wanted to groom youngsters in the sport.
"And to begin with, we hope to organise the Harvest Festival Arm-wrestling championship next year on a much bigger scale," he added.
Source : Daily Express
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