GEORGE TOWN: LOCAL challengers made the country proud by capturing seven of the 10 titles in the Malaysian Junior Open Championships at the Nicol David International Squash Centre in George Town recently.
Juniors from Kedah and Bukit Jalil Sports School kept up with their superiority when their players clinched two titles each while Selangor, Negri Sembilan and Sabah collected the rest. Hong Kong won two titles while India took one.Kedah maintained their dominance at junior level in the national meet for the third consecutive year.
The northern state provided six challengers in five finals, winning two titles and four second places. Last year, Kedah won three titles.
As for hosts Penang, their two top players failed to deliver. In the Girls' Under-13 final, Nur Aliah Izzati Muhammad Anis, who was a losing semifinalist last year, went to Negri Sembilan's Ooi Kah Yan 11-7, 7-11, 11-6, 11-0, while the country's top junior, Vannesa Raj Gnanasigamani, who had wanted to win the Under-19 title, to complete a sweep of all the junior age-group titles, could only finish third, defeating her arch rival Rachel Mae Arnold of Bukit Jalil Sports School 12-10, 6-11, 11-5, 11-9.
The six-day tournament was hosted by Squash Racket Association of Penang and sanctioned by Squash Racket Association of Malaysia, Asian Squash Federation (ASF) and World Squash Federation (WSF).
The main sponsor for the championship was the Penang Water Corporation with Nestle and Dunlop as co-sponsors. The event was organised with the cooperation of the state government, Penang Island Municipal Council and the state sports council.
Organising chairman Linda Geh said the WSF has awarded the event Tier II status whereby the Under-19 players would accumulate World Junior Ranking points, while the ASF has awarded the event Platinum status on the Asian Junior Super Series where participants would earn Asian Junior Ranking points.
Geh, a former national player, said a total of 516 junior players and 127 officials (of which 177 were foreigners) were in Penang for the tournament. More than 5,000 people flocked to the island during the tournament.
"Participants from 12 countries came. Singapore had the largest contingent of 62 participants, India with a strong contingent of 47 participants and Hong Kong with six participants."
The others who came were South Korea (21 participants), Australia (12), New Zealand (11), Japan (5), Pakistan (2), Sri Lanka (3), Iran (2), China (1) and for the first time Taiwan came with four participants.
Geh said all the states, except for Perlis, Johor and Bukit Jalil Sports School, participated in the event which offered a total of RM10,000 cash prize.
The juniors contested in 10 age groups: Boys' and Girls' Under-11, Under-13, Under-15, Under-17 and Under-19.
All the Malaysian winners at the championships received the CIMB Foundation's sponsorships to participate in the British Junior Open from CIMB Bank vice-president/area retail manager Frankie Tan Jek Cheng. At the ceremony was SRAM deputy president Huang Ying How and Penang Water Corporation general manager Jaseni Maidinsa.
The age-group champions with CIMB Bank vice president-area retail manager Frankie Tan Jek Cheng (third from left) and SRAM deputy president Huang Ying How (fourth from left) who handed out the CIMB Foundation’s incentives at the Nicol David International Squash Centre in George Town recently. Pix by K. Kandiah
Read more: SQUASH: Kedah shine - Northern - New Straits Times http://www.nst.com.my/streets/northern/squash-kedah-shine-1.303463#ixzz2XgDUbby3
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