KUCHING: The Sarawak squash team began their 21st Malaysia Games (Sukma) challenge impressively, advancing past the first and second rounds to reach Saturday’s (Aug 17) quarter-finals.
Men’s player Hi Jia Rong, 20, defeated Sabah’s Clement Richard 3-0 and Penang’s Nickhileswar Moganasundharam 3-1 in the early rounds.
“Before Sukma, I performed poorly in a tournament, which caused me to lose confidence.
“From there, I bounced back and worked harder to give my best to try and win a medal for Sarawak since this is my last Games,” he told reporters at the Sarawak Squash Stadium on Friday (Aug 16).
Jia Rong leveraged on all his experience to secure victories of 11-9, 11-5, 5-11, and 11-9 in about 70 minutes.
Sarawak squash team manager Jewan Singh expressed his delight with the efforts shown by Jia Rong and his teammates thus far.
“All the players have shown high commitment throughout training and have done their best to achieve victory for Sarawak. If we lose, we lose having given our best effort. We tried everything we could to achieve success,” Jewan said.
Meanwhile, Shi Yuan Yung’s hopes of surprising Terengganu’s Addin Iqwan Hilman were dashed as he lost 3-0.
In another match, Sarawak women’s player Whitney Isabelle Wilson defeated Federal Territories’ Dakshayani Thangaraja 3-0, advancing to the quarter-finals.
However, her teammate Su Fei Wong could not overcome her opponent from the Federal Territories, Najwa Zara Mohd Fakhrur Razi, losing 1-3.
The mixed doubles team also successfully negotiated the first round to advance to the next stage.
The doubles pair of Altamis Aqhar Sallam A Sufian-Eugenia David beat Kelantan’s Nik Irman Dasuki Norifaizal-Sabrina Nur Batrisya Shamsul Baharin in Friday’s early match.
