KUALA LUMPUR: National taekwondo exponent Nurul Hidayah Abdul Karim has decided to retire because of her injuries and age.
The 25-year-old from Bintulu, Sarawak, said she had to make the tough choice to end her career as injuries would make it harder for her to face future challenges.
“My right hip injury I sustained in 2022, has yet to heal. Then during the Asian Games training camp in South Korea, I sustained new injuries to my right wrist and left knee.
“Since in future poomsae, there will be a freestyle poomsae category, it will require a lot of extreme movements. So I need to take care as my body needs to last a long time,” she said in a telephone interview from Bintulu, where she is currently undergoing her industrial training to complete her degree in sports science from Universiti Malaya.
“Next year, I want to focus on getting a coaching licence and taking courses on sports science and coaching. But now (I’m) still focussed on completing (my) internship,” she said, sharing that she had discussed her desire to retire with her coaches, Jin Jun Beom and Yap Yih Tiing, both of whom had shared some advice with her.
Nurul Hidayah said her retirement had nothing to do with her quarterfinal loss to former world champion Marjan Salahshouri from Iran in the Hangzhou Asian Games in September, when a controversial decision by the jury resulted in her missing out on an automatic medal in her debut.
The taekwondo exponent, who started training in the sport when she was 10, had previously won the silver medal at the World Taekwondo Poomsae Championship in Goyang, South Korea in the Under-30 mixed team with Jason Loo.
Together with Jason, she also won the gold medal in the mixed team event in the South East Asian (SEA) Games in 2019 and 2023, as well as the silver medal for the women’s team event in SEA Games 2023 with her sister Nur Humaira and teammate Lim Jia Wei. - FMT
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