Top juniors Derrick, Gabriel seal place in state squad

KUCHING: Derrick Tsai lived up to his status as a top national Under-13 junior paddler when he easily booked his spot in the Sarawak team for the Malaysia Hopes Table Tennis Championship.

The student from Chung Hua Primary School No.3, Kuching finished first in the Boys Under-13 competition of the selection trial over the weekend at Tai-Chi Centre, Jalan Laksamana Cheng Ho No. 8 where he collected 17 points in the round-robin league.

Coming in second was his schoolmate Gabriel Ling also on 17 points but he lost to Derrick in one of the matches.

Third with 16 points was Wong Zang Huan from Miri while in fourth and fifth sports with 15 points and 14 points were Sibu’s Ting Yun Kai and Sii Hoe Hong also from Miri respectively.

The top two spots for the Girls Under-13 were won by Miri players.

Catherine Chan was first with 25 points and Foo Wui Jia was second with 24 points but she had beaten Andrea Tan of Kuching who also ended up with 24 points.

Crystal Tiong from Sibu was in fourth place also with 24 points while the last berth was won by Sia Hsiao Hung of Sibu with 22 points.

Last Saturday, Kuching made a clean sweep of the Boys Under-10 spots, with Joel Chan leading the way with 23 points.

Louis Chung, who lost a match to Joel, finished second also with 23 points while in third to fifth spots were Allan Teo (22), Godwin Ling (20) and Ho Chung Chung (20).

The top five finishers in the Girls Under-10 contest were Tay Lyn Jia (18 points), Karen Lyne Dick (17), Faustina Su (15), Chang Chuing (15) and Esther Tiong (14).

Over 200 matches were played in the selection trial to select representatives for Sarawak at the Malaysia Hopes Table Tennis Championship in Perlis from Oct 21-25.

The top three finishers are sponsored by the state association while the fourth and fifth finisher will have to seek their own funding or sponsorships.

A total of 54 players took part in the selection that ended last Saturday night.