KUALA LUMPUR: National gymnast Rayna Hoh made history when she became the country’s first female gymnast to win a silver medal earlier today (Thursday) at the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) which is being held in Buenos Aires in Argentina.
The 15-year-old gymnast linked up with 12 other gymnasts from various countries to represent the Max Whitlock team which came in second in the team gymnastics event that involved all the gymnastic disciplines – acrobatic, male artistic, female artistic, rhythmic gymnastics, male trampoline and female trampoline, amassing 349 points overall.
The gold was won by the Simone Biles team who raked up 293 points while the Oksana Chusovitina team took the bronze with 352 points. The teams gain points based on the ranking of each discipline participated in and the team with the lowest number of points are the overall champions.
Rayna who only recently put up a remarkable performance at the Malaysia Games (Sukma) in Ipoh last month where she won five gold medals, put up yet another splendid performance in the bight and clubs routine.
The Convent Bukit Nanas student is only the third national gymnast to have qualified for the YOG after Lee Wan Nin took part in the first edition in Singapore back in 2010, and Olivia Tai Qing who participated in the previous YOG that was held in Nanjing, China in 2014.
Malaysia Gymnastics Federation (MGF) deputy president, Kau Git Kaur expressed happiness for Rayna who successfully proved her abilities as a national gymnast while competing together with gymnasts from other countries.
"I am very happy for Rayna as she has made history by winning our first medal in gymnastics at a major international sporting event. Compared to other sports, gymnastics has much tougher competition because of the higher number of participants,” She told NSTP Sport.
Kau Git Kaur hopes that Rayna’s outstanding achievement will open the eyes and ears of sports administrators and officials in the country so that they may receive more in terms of financial allocation in order to further develop gymnastics in the country and take the sport to greater heights.
