Alice books ticket to Youth Olympic Games
KUCHING: Alice Chang Li Sian has booked her ticket to the Summer Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina this year from October 6 to 18.
Joining the 18-year old national paddler from Kuching is teammate from Selangor Choong Javen.
Alice, who completed her form five at Bukit Jalil Sports School last year, won the gold medal in the girls singles after beating Turkey’s Yilmaz Ozge 4-1 in the final of the qualifying tournament recently.
En route to the final, she defeated Michelle Wu of Australia 4-2 in the last eight before blanking her opponent from Kazakhstan Akasheva Zauresh 4- 0 in the semifinal.
“It was the happiest moment of my life when I secured the winning point against Yilmaz as I achieved my target of qualifying for the YOG in Buenos Aires.
“Thank God for giving me the strength, will and determination in making my dream come true,” said Alice.
According to her, it was a different feeling when playing different opponents from the first match to the final and best feeling was in the final.
A week earlier (June 4-7) at the same venue in the ITTF World Junior Circuit Cook Island Junior and Cadet Open, Alice also did well by securing a silver and bronze.
The Girls Junior singles saw Alice beating Kaur Parleen of Australia 4- 0, New Zealand’s Vong Hui Ling 4- 0 and China’s Yang Hang Gua 4- 3 before losing 2- 4 to another China paddler Dai Tian in the final.
In the Girls Junior Doubles where she teamed up with Canada’s Ivy Liao, Alice lost 1- 3 to a mixed pair from Australia and New Zealand to collect the bronze medal.
She will next be looking forward to improving her performance in the South East Asian (SEA) Junior Championship in the Philippines from July 4 to 8.
“Since this will be my final SEA Junior outing, I hope to win the gold medal after winning the bronze in the previous edition.
“I also hope to help Malaysia qualify for the Asian Junior Championship,” she added.