Alice Chang Li Sian with her collection of medals won at the recent MSSM Table Tennis Championship in Kuala Lumpur. — Photo by Teo Chi Wei
KUCHING: State junior paddler Alice Chang Li Sian made a major breakthrough in her playing career when she won the Girls U18 singles title at the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM) Table Tennis Championships held in Kuala Lumpur from March 15-19.
The 15-year old form three student of SMK Sungai Maong, who is 177cm tall, had played against older opponents in the five-day national meet but prevailed to take the gold medal.
A trainee at the Kuching Elite Table Tennis Training Centre, Chang opened her campaign in the round of 64 with a 3-1 win over Chong Xing Yee of Negeri Sembilan and she went on to blank Tee Ai Xin of Johor 3-0 in the last 32.
In the last 16, Chang thumped Choon Jie Yi of Melaka 3-0 before edging Vivian Ng of Selangor 3-2 in the quarterfinals.
The semi-finals saw Chang whitewashing teammate Catherine Chan from Miri 4-0 and, in the final, she outplayed Oh Yong Xin of Penang 4-1.
Chang also collected a silver medal from the Girls U18 team event where Sarawak beat Kuala Lumpur 3-0 in the quarterfinals and Penang 3-0 in the semi-finals before bowing out 1-3 to eventual champions Selangor.
Her previous achievement at MSSM was a singles silver, doubles gold and team gold in 2012 where she competed in the Girls U12 category.
“In fact I did not target to win the Girls U18 singles gold because there were better players and some of them are older than me,” Chang said when interviewed.
“I was under no pressure and I just played my normal game and took one game at a time with the hope of advancing further in the competition.”
“This achievement has certainly given me more confidence and I will strive harder to get better results in future competitions,” she added.
Chang picked up table tennis at the age of eight where she trained under Chua Chiaw Lian. As she was tall for her age, she was trained as a chopper player and is the only girl chopper paddler in the state.
She made her debut in the Malaysia Hopes Championship in 2010 where she collected a silver (singles) and two golds (doubles, team).
In June 2011, Chang was among the two state junior paddlers, the other being Gabriel Ling Kerk Yu, who were nominated by International Table Tennis Federation to attend the ITTF training camp and World Hopes Challenge in Austria.
In the Malaysia Hopes Championship 2012, Chang returned home with a bronze (singles) and a gold (team). The following year (2013) saw her winning the gold in the singles and doubles plus the team bronze.
She also made it to the last 16 in the women’s singles at the 50th Malaysia Open Table Tennis Championship.
In the Malaysia Hopes Championship last year, Chang won the singles bronze and the team gold. She also helped Sarawak recapture the women’s team gold at the 51st Malaysia Open Table Tennis Championship after a lapse of 37 years.
“I feel that it is not easy to be a chopper as it requires strength, endurance, stamina, perseverance, footwork, self discipline and a lot of hard work,” she added. Besides learning and mastering basic skills like forehand drive, backhand drive, Chang said she had to train how to play forehand and backhand chop, defence and attack.
“I would like to express my heartfelt thanks to my coach Chua and my family members, relatives, friends, teammates and all those involved for their strong morale support.”
Chang will represent Sarawak at the 35th Milo Malaysia Junior and Cadet Table Tennis Championship at Keat Hwa High School in Alor Setar, Kedah from June 10-13. She is also hoping to be selected to represent Sarawak at the 52nd Malaysia Open Table Tennis Championship in Pahang from December 14-17.