Bad Landing In Uneven Bars Costs Our Best Bet Farah Dearly

PALEMBANG: A bad landing in the uneven bars not only aggravated her thigh injury but also resulted in Malaysia’s best bet - Farah Ann Hadi - finishing a disappointing fifth in the individual all-around final yesterday.

The 17-year-old Farah went into the competition in buoyant mood after finishing third overall in the qualifying event on Sunday with the boisterous Indonesian crowd behind her.

She started well in the vault apparatus, scoring a 12.350. But the injury from the uneven bars saw her score on the beam apparatus hit a low 11.034.

Crowd favourite: Malaysia’s Farah Ann Hadi competing in the uneven bars in the all-around final Monday.

She only managed 12.200 in the floor exercise, a far cry from the 12.567 she garnered during the qualifiers. Still, the sweet-smiling Farah managed to put on a brave front, saying she was confident of doing well in the individual events which begin today.

“It’s really disappointing because I started well and had high hopes for the beam and floor exercise,” said Farah.

“It’s an old injury and it’s really painful now ... I can’t really walk much.

“I guess it’s bad luck and my fault that I didn’t even pick up a medal, but I will try to win the gold from the individual floor exercise.”

Farah qualified for three individual finals – balancing beam, uneven bars and floor exercise – but she may only contest the floor exercise while Tracie Ang and Noor Hasleen Fatih compete in the other two.

Thi Ha Than and Thi Ngan Thuo gave a flawless performance as they danced their way to a glorious 1-2 finish for Vietnam.

Commonwealth Games silver medallist Lim Heem Wei settled for bronze.

In the men’s event, both Malaysians – Danniel Iskandar Richard and Hairi Said Ahmad Saruji – only managed eighth and ninth respectively.

Thailand’s Rartchawat Kaewpan claimed the gold while Vietnam’s Pham Phuoc Hung and Hoang Cung took silver and bronze respectively.