WINNERS CIRCLE: Top four winners of the boys and girls competition posing for a group photo after the prize presentation. They will represent Kuching Zone A in the Kuching Inter-Zone competition next Friday.
KUCHING: Kuching’s top junior paddlers Louis Chung Kian Fu and Elicia Tsai Xin Ni emerged champions in the boys and girls category of the Sarawak Schools Sports Council (MSSS) Kuching Zone A Under-12 Table Tennis Competition held at SJK Chung Hua No. 3 school hall yesterday.
Louis, 11, who won the Boys’ Under 13 singles title at the recent 52nd Sarawak Datuk Jimmy Lau Hieng Wui Table Tennis Championship at Miri last month, won all of his matches in the event which was participated by 21 paddlers.
The SJK Chung Hua No. 4 student was seeded second behind top seed Joel Chen Yu Chen from SJK Chung Hua No. 3 but he upstaged the latter 3-1 (11-7, 12-10, 11-13, 11-5) during the final.
Earlier during the quarterfinals, Louis survived a determined comeback from SJK Chung Hua No. 3’s Benjamin Thian but he soaked up the pressure and used his experience to get through to the last four.
In the battle for the last 16, Louis disposed Jaden Lai from SJK Chung Hua No. 2 3-1 (11-9, 9-11, 11-8, 11-6) and defeated Christopher Issac Goh from SJK Chung Hua No. 3 also on similar score (6-11, 11-9, 11-8, 11-7).
In the competition, Ho Zong Chun and Christopher Issac Goh both from SJK Chung Hua No. 3 finished joint third while Darren Siaw from SJK Chung Hua No. 2 finished fifth.
In the girls’ category, top seed Elicia Tsai had no problem in coming out tops in the seven-player field.
The 12-year-old primary six student from SJK Chung Hua No. 3 had a walkover in the quarterfinals and she edged SJK Chung Hua No. 2’s Tay Lynn Jia 3-2 (11-9, 13-15, 8-11, 11-5, 11-6) in the semi-finals.
Elicia went on to beat SJK Chung Hua No. 1’s player Joan Chung 3-1 (11-1, 11-7, 12-14, 11-7) in the final.
Tay Lynn Jia and SJK Chung Hua No.3’s Chong Chiung finished joint third while in fifth place was Phoebe Ting also from SJK Chung Hua No. 3.
Five boys and five girls will represent Kuching Zone A in the coming MSSS Kuching inter-zone competition that will be held next Friday with paddlers from Kuching Zone B, Padawan, Lundu and Bau joining the fray.
The winners of the Kuching inter-zone competition will represent the division at the coming MSSS inter-division meet at Samarahan Indoor Stadium from Jan 28-30.