WUG 2025: Chief de Mission believes contingent capable of better results
Malaysia's Chief de Mission (CDM) to WUG 2025, Datuk Associate Professor Dr Mohd Hafiz Yusoff said at least three or four medals slipped out of the country's grip at the last minute, including the mixed team badminton event as well as several individual competitions apart from the women's recurve archery team.
According to him, the fighting spirit shown by the athletes clearly proves their great desire to win, but several aspects need to be improved in preparation for the upcoming WUG edition.
"For me, four medals were very close, for example the mixed team event and several individual events in badminton.
But I can see that the athletes emotionally and mentally really want to win medals.
"But for me, there may be areas in terms of technical and tactical aspects and their mental strength that we must improve for a world-class tournament like this," he said when met by reporters, here.
Commenting further, Mohd Hafiz admitted that the presence of many Olympic-level athletes, especially in athletics events, posed a big challenge to the national camp.
"For me, Azeem (Muhammad Azeem Mohd Fahmi) has shown a very good performance, but the presence of top international athletes posed a major competition to us," he said.
Meanwhile, he said a post-mortem would be held to streamline preparations for the 2026 Asean University Games (AUG) in Kuala Lumpur.
Malaysia ended the challenge here with a silver medal through the swimming champion Khiew Hoe Yean in the men's 400-metre (m) freestyle and a bronze by badminton camp through Wong Ling Ching in the women's singles.
WUG 2025 officially drew its curtain with a closing ceremony that took place in a class of its own at the Landschaftspark Duisburg-Nord in Duisburg, early this morning Malaysia time.
Japan emerged as the overall champion with 34 gold, 21 silver and 24 bronze, followed by China (30-27-17) and the United States in third place (28-27- 29), neighbouring country Thailand (2,4,4).
The next WUG Games will be held in Chungcheong, South Korea in 2027. — BERNAMA
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