Aziz (centre) and Janih on his left posing with the winners, officials and organisers at SBA badminton hall yesterday. — Photo by Teo Chi Wei
KUCHING: It was mission accomplished for the Sarawak Badminton Association (SBA) as they achieved their target of capturing nine out of the 16 gold medals to emerge the overall champions in this year’s National Junior Circuit Sabah/Sarawak Zone Badminton Championship at SBA hall yesterday.
Sarawak were dominant in the doubles competition as they swept the Boys U12, Girls U14, Girls U16, Boys U16, Boys U18 and Girls U18 titles apart from clinching the Girls 14, Boys U16 and Boys U18 singles titles.
In a closely contested Boys U18 doubles final, Sarawak’s pair of Owen Ting Shih Wee and Jeremy Kho, the second seeds, recovered from the first set loss 19-21 to beat Sabah’s top seeds Seddrick Awyn Gunsalam and Ting Si Ren 21-19, 21-11.
However, there was little problem for Sarawak’s Kam Wei Li and Yong Ping Ping in the Girls U18 doubles as they brushed Sabah’s Nicky Chong Si Wen and Nicole Chong Shu Wen aside in straight sets of 21-14, 21-14.
The Boys U18 singles final saw Wilson Lau Ngie Ding upstaging Sabah’s top seed Goh Ting Yu 22-20, 21-11 while Kristy Tay Yong 16-21, 14-21 to Sabah’s Leonilla Alauni Molin in the Girls U18 singles final.
Other gold medallists for the host team were Felicia Fong Xin Hui and Flora Fong Xin Jie (Girls U16 doubles), Gilbert Vieery and Henry Law Yih Ho (Boys U16 doubles), Felicia Fong Xin Hui (Girls U16 singles), Kashley Kho Tze Yin and Yong En En (Girls U14 doubles), Wong Ling Ching (Girls U14 singles), and Darrent Lim Lian Zhan-Jeremy Juan Zhen Liang (Boys U12 doubles).
A total of 193 shuttlers took part in this year’s championship organised by SBA.
SBA president Tan Sri Datuk Amar Abdul Aziz Hussain and his Sabah counterpart Janih Bangud gave away the prizes.
The top two winners of the age groups U14-U18 for the boys and girls as well as the top four winners of the boys/girls U12 categories shall represent the East Malaysia (Sabah-Sarawak) Zone for the National Junior Circuit Grand Finals in Kuala Lumpur from May 5-11.