World Junior Champion Zulfadli Zulkiffli wins Malaysian Best Young Athlete for 2011
The ruling World Junior Champion Zulfadli Zulkiffli from Malaysia was honoured with “Best Young Athlete” for 2011 yesterday.
The Sports writers Association of Malaysia (SAM) generate this award every year. This year total eleven Malaysian sports personalities got the nomination and five were short listed for the honour, but Zulfadli was declared the best athlete of 2011.
The Lee Chong Wei was the only other player from badminton, among the eleven contestants. The rest of the sports personalities were the talented shooter Nur Suryani Taibi, the cycling duo Fatehah Mustapha and Ju Pha Som Net, the Nicol David for representing
the country in squash.
The national diving team member Pandelela Rinong , the bowling couple Jacqueline Jenelee and Adrian Ang , the Aaliyah Yoong from the water-ski sport, the Kevan Cheah for excelling in wushu and the men’s team of archery were also nominated for the award.
The young Malaysian shuttler Zulfadli Zulkiffli rightly deserved the award as he won Asian Junior title followed by the World Junior Champion title last year. It was the first time in the Malaysian badminton history that a junior singles player brought
the World Junior Championships trophy for the country.
The 18-year-old Zulfadli was ecstatic with this tap on the shoulder by SAM members and determined to use it as a whip for a racing horse.
He said, “I’m surprised to be named as the winner but am obviously very happy to be chosen. The award will motivate me to do better this year. I also want to thank all the sports writers who had supported me.”
Zulfadli, by grabbing this award, will be recipient of RM 10,000 award money also while the five shortlisted nominees will pocket RM 1,000 each.
The young Malaysian Zulfadli Zulkiffli is an asset for his country. He is currently ranked 126 in Men’s Singles World Rankings but this World Junior Champion is catching up with great pace.
He is certainly a ray of hope to ensure the Malaysian’s supremacy in the badminton arena as most of the current top ranked shuttlers are going to bid farewell in next couple of years.
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