KUCHING: Sarawak kabaddi team notched a milestone in national level competition when they reached the semifinal of the MMU open tournament in Melaka last week.
Sarawak Kabaddi Association (SKA) president Ramachandran Ramasamy told The Borneo Post yesterday it was a significant achievement as kabaddi was only introduced to the state four years ago.
“They did well against teams which field seasoned players. We are proud of them.”
The state team was placed in group B with two other teams, Sri Devi and the Johor state team.
They progressed to the next round finishing second in the group after defeating Johor 55-33 and losing 33-13 to Sri Devi.
In the quarter-finals, Sarawak beat Klang match 49-7 to enter the semi-final.
However in the semi-final they came up against last year’s champion, Bukit Pelandok from Negeri Sembilan who thrashed them 45-27.
State coach Ganisan Punisamy, who prepared the team for the tournament, commented that
the tournament was a good indication of the state’s future in the sport.
“Although many called us newbies, we show them that we were no pushovers,” he added.
Ganisan noted that only four former Sukma players in the team had any experience in national level competition as the rest of the teams never had any exposure to top level contest.
He thanked the Sarawak State Sports Council (MSNS) and sponsors Kasumi Sports for their kind support.