Abigail with the Special Recognition award.
KUCHING: The Special Recognition Award will further spur Sarawak’s strongest female armwrestler Abigail Kee Zing Ning to go for bigger achievements.
Abigail was one of the recipients of the award, which recognised women in the state for their contribution in various fields such as sports, education, music and film making.
She received the award from the Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg in conjunction with the International Women’s Day 2021 celebration at Wisma Bapa Malaysia, Petra Jaya on Wednesday.
“I would like to express my thanks to the Sarawak government for giving me the recognition for my contribution to armwrestling.
“This award is the recognition for all women throughout the state who contribute and bring Sarawak’s name to the world,” said Abigail when contacted yesterday.
“Being one of the seven recipients, I feel very happy.
“To be excellent, we must put in a lot of commitment, perseverance and dedication to achieve our goal,” said the 17-year-old student from SMK Batu Lintang.
According to Abigail, she was not born to be a sportswoman but it was her father, Dr Stephen Kee Chu Kiong who encouraged and “pushed” her in taking up the sport.
“In the first place, his intention was to transform me into a brave girl since I was having an inferiority complex.
“After getting involved in this sport, I feel so motivated, encouraged and fell in love with it. From there, I pushed myself to train more and gain more knowledge in this sport,” she said.
Seeing the transformation in Abigail, Stephen provided his daughter with training equipment and even got a dedicated coach for her.
“The words that I always remember my father said is ‘train well to be a world champion’.”
She already competed in state, national and world events for years, experiencing successes, and also failures, along the way.
“My best achievement is winning two silver medals in IFA (International Federation of Armwrestling) World Championship, Poland in 2019.
“I am going for the gold medal in the World Championship in Florida, US and Zloty Tour in Dubai, UAE this year,” she declared.
She will compete in the Junior Above 65kg in Florida and Senior Above 85kg in the Dubai meet.
At the same time, Abigail is also dreaming of helping other girls and women to become armwrestlers.
“For this purpose, I will go for further study in sports if possible,” she added.
Abigail is currently the women’s number one puller in the country and Asia, and second in the world.
In her foray into professional elite armwrestling this year, she is ranked number nine.
Meanwhile, Stephen said it was a great honour that Abigail was recognised for her contribution to armwrestling.
“It means a lot not only to Abigail and myself but also to the armwrestling community in Malaysia.
“To receive such award coming from a new sport like armwrestling, it will definitely create a new momentum for the youth especially the armwrestling enthusiasts,” added Stephen, who is the Malaysia Armwrestling Federation deputy president.
“We are grateful to the Sarawak Government through the Sarawak Sports Corporation for giving strong support to Abigail and other state armwrestlers over the years,” he said.
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