KUCHING: The state junior golfers had a good outing at the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM) Golf Championship in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah that ended on Thursday.
GOOD OUTING: Sarawak players and officials pose with Difison (right) after the prize presentation.
Sarawak captured one individual title and finished among the top three in three team events to end up fifth overall with 29 points.
Jaclyn Chen was the toast of the Sarawak team when she won the Girls Under 15 title with a three-day total of 235 strokes.
The Miri lass also won the novelty prize for the “longest drive” challenge with a distance of 196.3m.
Jaclyn picked up another medal when she partnered Alethea Cordelia and Ashley Lau to finish runner-up in Girls U-15 team overall. The state’s Girls U-12 team comprising Lydia Huong, Eliza Mae Kho and Adeline Lau also impressed by finishing third in the team overall.
Adeline also picked up a novelty prize for the “nearest to pin” with a distance of 2.05m.
The team of Jordan Tay, Jordan Lim and James Ngumbang finished third in the Boys U-18 category. Selangor, who accumulated a total of 73 points, were the champions while host Sabah were the runners-up with 41 points and in third place were Negri Sembilan with 35 points.
MSSM Sarawak golf technical and development chairman Difison Jelema regarded this year’s outing as a successful one.
“I am proud of our players and I would like to thank the parents for their strong support. Thanks also to our State Education Department director Abdillah Adam and Sports Unit Head Paul Law for their words of encouragement and moral support,” he said.
“It was such a pity that we were only two points behind joint fourth placings Johor and Melaka.”
“Our team of 15 players performed better when compared to last year’s results. I hope that with better support from all parties concerned in terms of funding for the development of junior gold in Sarawak, we can do even better next year in either Johor or Labuan,” he said.
In 2012, Jaclyn won the bronze in the Girls U-15 individual event while Ashley was fifth.
In the Boys U-18, Macolm Tay was fifth in the individual event.
This year’s Sarawak team was led by Median Elie and coached by Azman Hamdan while the chaperones were Esther Vincent Suyong and Mary Karl.