Malaysia banking on crowd support for 3rd SEA Squash C’ship
KUCHING: The Malaysian team are looking forward to the local crowd support in their quest to capture the overall champion title of the 3rd Southeast Asian Cup Squash Championship which starts today at the Sarawak Squash Centre, Petra Jaya.
This was voiced out by the national team manager Nik Razeen Daud who accompanied the players during their training session yesterday.
According to him, whi le the Malaysian team which is coached by Ong Beng Hee and Mika Monto is optimistic on home ground advantage, fervent support from the local crowd can motivate the players even better.
Even though Singapore are the team to beat in the five-nation event, the competition is expected to be stiff.
The home team is represented by 2015 Singapore SEA Games gold medallist Sanjay Singh Chal who is playing together with threetime British Open junior champion Ng Eain Yow and recent Sarawak Sukma gold medal list, Marcus Sim.
The trio are expected to spearhead Malaysia’s challenge in the 3rd SEA Cup which was last held in Myanmar and with Singapore hosting the first edition in 2015.
The other Malaysian men players are Muhammad Adden Idrakie, Mohammad Shafiq Mohd Kamal, Darren Rahul Pragasam while the women players are Sivasangari Subramaniam, Rachel Mae Arnold, Nazihan Hanis, Yiwen Chan and Aifa Aiman.
Both Sivasangari and Eain did Malaysia proud after winning the individual gold medals in the 2015 Commonwealth Youth Games held in Samoa. Rachel won gold medal in the team event during the recent Sarawak Sukma and also bronze in the individual event.
Meanwhi le, the finals of the men’s doubles matches will start at 9am today and the Malaysian pair of Sanjay and Eain received a first- round bye but they are expected to meet either Lydio Espinola/ Reymark Begornia of the Philippines or Muhd Nurtastftian/ Muhamad Rizal of Indonesia.
In the women’s doubles opening round, Malaysian pair of Chan Yi Wen/ Rachel Mae Arnold will meet Au Yeong Wei/ Mao Shi Hui of Singapore in the match which starts at 12: 30pm.
Members of the publ ic a re encouraged to come to the Sarawak Squash Centre as entrance is free.
The event is jointly organised by South East Asia Squash Federation ( SEASF ) , S qu a sh R ac que t Association of Malaysia ( SRAM) and Squash Racquet Association of Sarawak ( SRAS) with the support from Ministry of Youth, Sports and Solidarity Sarawak Sports Corporation and Sarawak State Sports Council.