EXCITING TOURNAMENT: Jong (third left) and Yeo (fourth left) receiving the sponsorship from Poh (second right) while (from left) are Goh, Idris, Tan and Robert.
KUCHING: Squash Racquet Association of Sarawak (SRAS) will be organising the CMS Borneo Cup Junior Open which is the first leg of the CMS S1 squash circuit to be held at Sarawak Club from June 28-30.
Squash Racquet Association of Kuching (SAK) president, Jong Thian Lung said this will be the largest ever squash tournament held locally in the state’s squash history.
“For the first time in Sarawak, we are also giving away prize money to the top three finishers of the respective age categories. About 280 matches will be
played at the squash courts of the Sarawak Club,” he said in a press conference at the Sarawak Club yesterday.
Apart from attractive prizes sponsored by Lea Sports Centre, Milo and Koko Krunch, the champion will receive RM300, runner-up RM200 and third placing RM100 respectively.
Jong said 156 junior players from Kuching (75), Sibu (35), Miri (29), Kuala Lumpur (9), Singapore (3), Negeri Sembilan (2) and Selangor (2) have confirmed their participation in the three-day competition.
“Local players and enthusiasts will have the golden opportunity to see top ten ranked national players from their respective age categories and players from Singapore in action,” said Jong.
According to him, among those competing in the tournament are national Boys Under 9 top player Chris Lau of Sibu and No.2 Kayden Paragasan from Negri Sembilan, Boys Under 11 national No. 3 Tommy Lau of Kuching, Boys Under 15 national No. 9 Terry Lau of Sibu, Boys Under 15 national No. 5 Eugene Heng..
As for the girls’ contest, those competing will include national Girls’ Under 9 No. 7 Wong Su Fei of Miri, Eva Zakharova, a Russian girl playing for Selangor and Girls’ Under 11 national No. 10, Girls’ Under 11 national No. 9 Zoe Ting from Kuching, Girls’ Under 13 national No. 4 and No. 10 Josephine Yii of Sibu and Charlize Goh from Kuching and Girls’ Under 15 national No. 6 Ma Su Yi of Miri.
“Our goal is that if we can run the CMS Borneo Cup Junior Open successfully, we will be applying to host one of the Asian Squash Federation events and this will be a platform for players in Malaysia and the region to earn ranking points,” said Jong.
He took the opportunity to thank the Sarawak State Sports Council (MSNS), Lea Sports Centre, Nestle (Malaysia) Bhd, Permanis Sdn Bhd and Water Genesis Sdn Bhd for their continuous support and making the event a great success.
SRAS will be holding the second leg of the CMS S1 squash circuit in Sibu from July 26-28 and the third leg in Miri from Sept 15-17.
Also present at the press conference were event organising chairman, Idris Sulaiman @ Dick, SAK vice president Connie Yeo, treasurer Irene Goh, Sarawak Club assistant general manager Robert Brodie, sports member Wilson Tan and Lea Sports Centre senior operation manager Poh Siok Hoon.