WINNING RETURNS: Bexter Jap (front) hits a return to Affeeq Abedeen Ismail in the Boys U-19 final on court 2 at the Sarawak Club squash courts yesterday. Jap upstaged Affeeq 3-1.
KUCHING: Host team Kuching dominated the third and final leg of the CMS Sarawak Squash Circuit S1 by capturing eight out of 11 titles at stake at the Sarawak Club courts yesterday.
They won the Boys U-19, Boys U-17, Boys U-9 and swept the Girls U-17, 15, 13, 11 and 9 categories to finish as the overall champions of the Kuching leg as well as the overall champions for the three legs.
Miri walked away with the Boys U-13 and Boys U-11 titles while Sibu took the Boys U-15 crown.
In the last final, the Boys U-19 played yesterday between two national juniors Affeeq Abedeen Ismail and Bexter Jap both from Kuching, second seed Jap upstaged top seed Affeeq 3-1 to claim the title.
Jap won the first set 11-9 but Affeeq fought back to take the second set 11-6. The third and fourth sets were rather close, with Jap winning 11-9, 12-10.
“It wasn’t my aim to win here and I lost to Bexter because I wasn’t in my peak condition. Moreover, I have just returned from the Hong Kong Junior Open and did not have enough training,” said Affeeq who accepted the defeat graciously.
The national junior number two and also Asian junior number two is more focused on preparing for a NSC Satellite Squash Championship this week.
Finishing third and fourth in the Boys U-19 were Kuching’s Jess Tay and Devon Kong.
Marcus Sim beat Samuel Law 3-0 in an all-Kuching final to lift the Boys U-17 crown while third and fourth were Eric Lau and Anderson Yong who are both from Sibu.
In the Girls U-17 final, national junior player Michelle Wong from Kuching was simply too good for her opponent Danielle Wee from Miri, beating the latter 3-0 (11-5, 111-3 and 11-2).
Flora Teng of Kuching finished third after overcoming teammate Vivien Yeo 3-1 (14-16, 11-4, 11-9, 11-8) in the play-off for third and fourth placings.
As expected, another national junior player Mindy Lee from Kuching bagged the Girls U-15 crown after winning all four matches and collecting 12 points to top the league-based competition.
Miri’s Evelyn Lo, who lost 0-3 to Lee, was second with nine points, followed by Kuching’s Natasha Lau in third place (six points) and Miri’s Wong Su Lin was fourth with three points.
One hundred and three players participated in the final leg of Sarawak Squash Circuit S1, with Kuching fielding the biggest number of players with 48, followed by Sibu (26), Miri (25) and Brunei, four.