KUCHING, Negeri Sembilan women's lawn bowl athlete Hasmunirah Maliki has to put friendship aside when she is pitted against her best friend in her mission to defend the gold medal at the Sarawak 2024 Para Malaysia Games (Para SUKMA). Speaking to Bernama, the 30-year-old athlete admitted that she is facing a 'war of nerves' when she battles against her close friend Nur Aisyah Tajudin, whom she had known for 28 years at Para SUKMA this time, apart from also knowing each other's techniques in the sport. "On the lawn she is my opponent, outside she is my friend. Aisyah is one of the great challengers who knows the ins and outs of my tactics and emotions, I do feel a little threatened, but I will put that all away when I stepped onto the field like a normal competition,' she told Bernama at the group stage bowling action at the Sarawak Lawn Bowl Arena here today. Meanwhile, Hasmunirah described her teammates in the open doubles event today as starting on the right foot when they won their group matches. "This is a positive step in Negeri Sembilan's mission to defend the overall championship like last edition. In 2022 in Kuala Lumpur we won two gold medals, hopefully our team will get three golds for this edition," she said. Earlier, the B7 (Physical Disability) lawn bowling action saw the Negeri Sembilan squad lined up Norazian Daud-Mohd Adlan Abu Talib lead the DD Group after beating the home team 14-10 before eliminating the Kelantan team 13-8 in the second action. The result saw the Negeri Sembilan squad leading Group DD followed by Kelantan who won in another match against Melaka 15-6, while Melaka and Sarawak were in third and fourth place respectively. Source: BERNAMA News Agency