Among the popular sports were aquatics, athletics, badminton, bodybuilding, bowling, cycling, hockey, football, golf, gymnastics, kabaddi, karate-do, sepak takraw, squash, table tennis, taekwondo, weightlifting and wushu.

Malaysia's biggest hope, the second seed ranking in the world, Lee Chong Wei is looking forward for at least a gold.

However, Malaysia unseeded men's doubles pair of Koo Kien Kiat and Tan Boon Heong went all the way.

Malaysia was even unable to progress to the final in Asian games; they lost to Indonesia 12 years ago.

MBBF is banking on Sazali Samad, who recently won the gold in the bantamweight category of Mr. Universe held in the Czech Republic in October.

The 20-year-old became the first Malaysian to win the tenpin bowling women's singles with an Asian Games record of 1,444 for a six-game series and an average of 240.7.

What I did today is my best performance in this event.” Angkana Netrviseth claimed the bronze medal – an early present for her 17th birthday on 24 December – with a total of 1,331, three pins better than that of Japanese bowler Kanako Ishimine.

Esther Cheah also helped Malaysia win the women's team of five crown with a Games record 6,555 total for a six-game series, but had to settle for silver in the all events competition behind Choi Jin A of Korea on Friday 8 December.

Cheah and teammates Sharon Koh Suet Len, Wendy Chai De Choo, Zandra Aziela and Shalin Zulkifli at the Qatar Bowling Centre to shatter the previous six-game record of 6,272 – set by Japan in Busan four years ago.

Choi, who led the Korean team by example with the top total of her compatriots, though had cause to smile after pipping Cheah to the all events gold medal with an average of 222.5.

This gave Choi her fourth medal of the Games like Cheah, the Korean having also won silver in the doubles and bronze in the trios earlier in the week.

The Busan 2002 Asian Games powerhouse countries include: Uzbekistan, South Korea, Kazakhstan, Pakistan and Thailand.

Men Women Malaysian diver Elizabeth Jimie may only be 14 years old and have just two international appearances to her name, but she will be among the contenders to land a medal at the 15th Asian Games Doha 2006.

In the men's synchro 3 m springboard final, Malaysian representative of Roslan Rossharisham and Yeoh Ken Nee get a total result of 393.36, 55.14 points behind the china gold medallist and got another silver medal for Malaysia.

The Karate event had begun on 12 December, but on the 1st day, Malaysia had already won 5 medals, including 4 silver and a bronze.

In the Laser 4.7 Open, Malaysia's Nurul Elia Anuar also won a bronze with 47 points in total after 12 races.

With a disastrous outing at the Melbourne Commonwealth Games in March this year, Nicol can be expected to give her 200 per cent to bag the Asiad gold medal as an apology to the country.

Defending champion Ong Beng Hee of Malaysia beat compatriot and top seed Mohamad Azlan Iskandar to claim the gold medal in the men's singles squash final at Khalifa International Complex on Thursday.

Iskandar used gamesmanship on several occasions, prompting a number of lets during the match, but he was unable to disturb the concentration of Ong.

With Nicol Ann David's comfortable victory in the women's singles earlier in the day, Malaysia cleaned up on the courts, much to the delight of their supporters.

As expected, World no 1 Nicol Ann David exorcised her demons of the last Asian Games, by winning gold in the women's squash singles at the Khalifa International Complex on Thursday, 14 December.

Four years ago she suffered a devastating loss to Chiu Wing Yin at the final in Busan, Korea which caused her to take a four-month break from the game to reassess her career in the sport.

Chai Fong Ying of Malaysia has won the first wushu medal of Doha 2006 by securing the women's taijiquan two events combined crown.

The World No.1 was a convincing winner, coming out on top in both the taijiquan (shadow boxing) and taijijian (taiji sword) disciplines to win with a score of 19.38.