Christopher Goh (right) and Too Ying Chuen showing their medals.
KUCHING: Sarawak junior paddlers successfully defended their overall title at the 27th Malaysia Milo Hopes Table Tennis Championship at SM Pei Fong in Melaka from Dec 1-4 after capturing three gold, two silver and six bronze medals.
In the 15-team national meet, Sarawak collected 43 points to finish ahead of Kuala Lumpur who had 39 points.
Christopher Goh Hian Hui and Too Ying Chuen, both from Kuching, helped the state’s Boys U13 squad capture the team and doubles titles.
They were the team’s best performers as Goh won two gold and a silver while Too bagged two golds and one bronze.
The other gold medal came from the Girls U13 team event with Karen Lyne Dick, Tay Lynn Jia, Elicia Tsai Xin Ni, Faustina Su Kwong Ai and Foo Wui Ying in the line-up.
Elicia Tsai teamed up with Tay Lynn Jia to win the Girls U13 doubles silver while the other five bronze medals were contributed by Karen Lyne Dick (Girls U13 singles), Boys U10 team, Girls U10 team, Boys U10 doubles (Benjamin Thian Khang Chern and Boon Jia Xian), Girls U10 doubles (Sia Hsiao Ling and Janice Wong Teck Yee).
Apart from that, nine Sarawak paddlers were ranked among the top 10 players in the championship.
They are Christopher Goh (Boys U13 No. 2), Too Ying Yuen (Boys U13 No. 3), Louis Chung Kian Fui (Boys U13 No. 10) while Karen, Tay amd Tsai were ranked No. 4, 5 and 7 respectively in the Girls U13.
As for the Boys U10, Boon was No. 6 and Benjamin Thian No. 10 while Sia Hsiao Ling was No. 6 in the Girls U10. Team manager-cum-coach Helena Christine Wee was pleased that the team had played to expectations.
“We are very happy to have retained the title and I am especially satisfied with the U13 boys especially Christopher Goh and Too Ying Chuen who led the team to the semi-finals and final.
“We were lucky to have beaten Pulau Pinang in the final and Kuala Lumpur in the last four,” said Wee.
She said the girls also did well in the U13 team event and Elicia Tsai turned the match around by snatching a valuable point in the third singles after Sarawak had lost the first two singles matches to Selangor in the final.
Karen and Tay Lynn Jia then delivered the precious two points for Sarawak’s 2-1 victory over Selangor.
On the performance of the state U10 girls and boys, Wee said there much room for improvement and they have to train harder to improve their game.
“Overall, the state team did very well where we won two out of the four team events for 28 points,” she said, adding that it was a close fight with Kuala Lumpur for the overall champions title.
The accompanying coaches were Chua Chiaw Lian, Yip Pau Cheng, Chai Kian Peng, Yu Ming Tao and Kong Tuong Sing while Kueh Wan May also helped with the coaching at the championship.