MIRI: The recently concluded Chief Minister’s Challenge Trophy organised by Persatuan Tenis Bumiputera Sarawak (PTBS) from March 17 to 21 here was a huge success for PTBS. A total of 140 participants from all the divisions in Sarawak participated in the tournament.
In 2013, PTBS Exco decided that in order to be fair to other divisions, once in three years the tournament is to be held outside Kuching, and Miri was again chosen this year for the venue because only Miri can provide the facilities to hold an event of this level.
Since the 1980s, the tournament – popularly known as PTBS Inter- Division – has been held annually but this year it was special to PTBS as it has been re-branded as the Chief Minister’s Challenge Trophy. The format and categories of the tournament – Team Event and Individual Event (Open and Veteran Categories) – still remain only the number of teams has increased with the declaration of Serian as a new division last year.
The re-branding of the tournament was endorsed by Chief Minister, Datuk Amar Abang Johari Tun Openg, during PTBS Exco’s courtesy call on him in February, 2017. PTBS Harwood and PTBS Utara dominated the Team Event when both won the champions and runners-up spot after they beat Limbang and Miri respectively in the semi-Finals. Limbang was another team to be reckoned with when they reached the semi-final for the first time since 2005.
In the State Level Open and Veteran Categories, Amin Tamel and Hj Zainoreen Alek still dominated both the singles and doubles veteran events. Amin Tamel won the Veteran Open singles and also won the doubles category when he partnered Hj Zainoreen Alek while in the Open Category, some new faces emerged in the tournament with Shuari Zawawi-Norhairi Khadir winning the Open Doubles and Muhd Syahmi Mohd Ehsan winning the Open Singles.
But the highlight of the tournament was the impressive performance of the four PTBS juniors who participated in both the Team and Open Events. The four PTBS Juniors (Mitchel Brapui Tidan, Muhd. Hanif Fauzi, Mohd Sufri Kasuadi and Mohd Nurhadzmi Khaidir) shone when their Team PTBS Utara nearly won the champions title from PTBS Harwood in the finals of the Team Event.
In the Open Category, although none of them reached the finals in both the Men’s singles and doubles events, based on their performances the last two years, they have made a tremendous progress this year, especially Mohd Sufri Kasuadi and Mohd Nurhadzmi Khaidir when their partnership nearly beat Muhd Syahmi Mohd Ehsan/Jeremy John in the men’s doubles semi-finals only to lose in a super tie-break 7-10. While the other two juniors, Mitchel Brapui Tidan and Muhd. Hanif Fauzi also made progress when they reached the quarterfinal stage but lose out to the more experienced players. Overall, the tournament has seen the best of the PTBS juniors for quite a while both in the Team and Open Event.
The welcoming dinner and prize giving ceremony for the CM’s Challenge Trophy was graced by Assistant Minister of Youth, Sports and Housing, Datuk Hj Abdul Karim Rahman Hamzah, at Imperial Palace Hotel here on March 18. The PTBS exco and organizing committee expressed their deepest gratitude to both the Chief Minister and Karim and the sponsors, especially Greensports Miri, for their support and guidance in making the event a success.
