Squash: Begornia bags gold

Reymark Begornia capped his run in the 5th Southeast Asian Cup Squash Championships last Wednesday with an 8-11, 11-8, 11-5, 9-11, 11-9 win over Singapore’s Benedict Chan in the men’s singles final at the Kerry Sports courts inside the Shangri-La Hotel in Taguig City.

In an intense duel of nerves in the deciding fifth set, Chan was the first to blink by succumbing to three successive midgame errors that Begornia exploited on the way to capturing the gold medal after 61 minutes.

It was the first major international title for the lanky 5-foot11 racket-wielder, who completed a four-match sweep of this stint that gave the hosts their first mint in the six-nation competition.

Malaysia’s Noor Ainaa Amanti Binti Amani Binti Ampandi came back from a first-set deficit to down Singapore’s Sneha Sivakumar, 6-11, 117, 11-9, 11-6, in clinching the women’s gold medal.