State seize squash team gold

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TEAM EFFORT: The Sarawak squash men’s team (from left) celebrate their victory on the podium after the medals presentation.

KUANTAN: Sarawak made amends for their disappointing show in the individual events in squash by winning the men’s team gold at Taman Gelora Squash Complex yesterday.

Bexter Jap was the toast of the team when he clinched the vital point for Sarawak’s 2-1 victory over Selangor.

He won the first two games 11-6, 13-11 against Marcus Yuen Jee Wern but Marcus refused to throw in the towel easily and won the third set 11-6.

In the fourth set, Bexter edged Marcus 12-10 to hand Sarawak its only squash gold in Pahang.

Earlier, Affeeq Abedeen had put Sarawak ahead with a point after beating Muhammad Zul Azri 3-1 (10-12, 11-8, 11-7 and 11-4) while Sanjay Singh, who was still nursing an injury and was also injured during the game against Muhammad Addeen, lost 1-3 (11-4, 5-11, 5-11 and 4-11).

Sarawak topped Group A in the preliminary round with eight points after beating Melaka 3-0, Terengganu 3-0, Kelantan 2-1, Negeri Sembilan 3-0 and Perak 3-0.

They went on to beat Pahang 2-0 in the semi-finals.

Host Pahang took the bronze medal after they beat Negeri Sembilan in the third/fourth placing play-off.

Sarawak women’s team of Michelle Wong, Danielle Wee, Jean Wong and Mindy Lee failed to make the final stages when their campaign ended with two wins for four points, beating Perak 3-0 and Pahang 2-1 and losing 0-3 to Pulau Pinang in Group A.

The gold was captured by Pulau Pinang who blanked Selangor 2-0 in the final while Kedah beat Kuala Lumpur 2-0 for the bronze.

Sarawak chief coach Muhammad Sallem from Pakistan regarded the one-gold, one-bronze medal haul as a satisfactory performance.

“We achieved our target of one gold but personally I was eyeing two golds, one in the individual and one in the team events,” he said when met at the squash court.

“The boys played very well today. We won today because they have got used to the playing conditions here. They didn’t do well in the individual events because they didn’t come here a few days earlier to get acclimatised to the conditions here.”

Sanjay was tipped to win the men’s gold but was bogged down by the injury he sustained during the exposure stint in Perth, Australia. Instead, he settled for the bronze after losing in the semi-finals.

Muhammad said Sanjay was only performing at 80 per cent and he could have won the gold if he was injury-free.

“It is an achievement for Sarawak after we finished fourth in the previous Sukma in Melaka in 2010,” said the former Perak coach who is now attached with Samarahan and Kuching Squash Association and training the juniors in the development programme.

Muhammad has also coached in United Kingdom, Iran and Pakistan.

He led the Perak squash team to winning two gold medals in Kedah Sukma in 2006 and left Perak in 2008.