Players and tournament organisers with Dr Ong (fifth, right) at the Sarawak Squash Centre on Sunday.
KUCHING: The Sarawak Squash Closed will go down in history as the first tournament to be held at the newly completed Sarawak Squash Centre.
Players competed in eight age categories from Under-12 to U-21 in the ‘Sarawakians only’ tournament held from July 1-3.
Acording to Margaret Kechendai who is in charge of publicity, the event served as a warm up to the state players gearing up for the upcoming Sukma.
“State Sukma players played against the younger state back up players during the tournament. This was also done to give the younger back-up players experience as they will be state players for future Sukma editions,” she said.
For the organising committee and volunteers the tournament also acted as a trial run for the 18th Sukma which starts on July 22.
Apart from Margaret, the other key committee members included chairman Sim Chin Kheng, technical delegate Peter Chee, tournament director Andy Kho, head of volunteers Idris Sulaiman, tournament referee Henry Tan, tournament secretariat Jessica Then and Irene Goh (finance).
Sarawak Sports Coorporation CEO Dr Ong Kong Swee was present during the prize-giving ceremony.
“It is good that the tournament be organised at this venue for the state players as it will make the state players get used to this venue. The Sarawak Squash Centre’s construction was only completed recently and that was the first time the state players played at the venue,” he said.
He added that the event was also organised to test the technical readiness of the newly built venue for Sukma.