Sabah U-15 girls snag silver
KOTA KINABALU: A positive showing maintained Sabah paddlers in the national mainstream thanks to a respectable outing at the 35th Malaysia Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Championships in Alor Setar, Kedah recently.
Despite winning only a single podium finish at the annual championships, the Sabahan paddlers returned home with their pride intact thanks to a silver medal performance from the Girls Under-15 squad.
Sabah Table Tennis Association secretary-general Tommy Tong said Sabah’s young paddlers had put on a positive performance to do one better than the previous year’s outing.
“Even though we won just one medal for Sabah, I can say that our players put on a promising display all around,” he said when contacted on Monday.
Tommy, who was also the state team manager, said most of the players reached the round of last 16 in both the boys and girls competitions for singles and doubles.
“Unfortunately, only one pairing made it through which was a bit disappointing. But on a whole, I would say it has been a positive outing for all the players and we will try to improve their performance for better results in the future,” he said.
He said the promising showings were made possible thanks to good technical preparation from their newly appointed coach, Liu Yucheng from China.
For the record, Sabah managed one bronze medal in last year’s championship from Loh Qiao Ni in the Girls U-15 Singles.
The recent four-day championships concluded with Sarawak as overall champions who won six gold medals, five silver and three bronze. Selangor placed second with six gold and two bronze medals.