Skip to main content

Sonia eyes ticket to Youth Olympics with steady show

A COMPOSED Sonia Cheah Su Ya kept up her steady performances to stay in contention for a ticket to Singapore for the inaugural Youth Olympics in August.

Yesterday, she won two matches to reach the fourth round of the Asian junior championships’ girls’ singles competition.

She defeated Pham Nhu Thao of Vietnam 21-8, 21-2 and then blew away South Korean Kang Ga-hee 21-13, 21-13.

The 17-year-old Kuala Lumpur lass will take on Castilo Gelita of the Philippines for a place in the quarter-finals and victory should give her a match against China’s Deng Xuan.

Only the top five players from the girls’ and boys’ singles competitions of the Asian Juniors qualify for the Youth Olympics. And Sonia is delighted that she has taken a step closer to making it.

“I want to be among the five to make the cut,” said the lanky Sonia, who stands at 1.73m tall. “The Youth Olympics is the biggest tournament for juniors and I want to be part of it. Making the semi-finals will guarantee me a place and I will go all out to achieve it.”


Sonia is the sole Malaysian remaining in the girls’ singles competition following the exits of three others – Lim Yin Fun, Ng Sin Er and Yang Li Lian.

The fifth-eighth seeded Li Lian was disappointed after losing 10-21,16-21 to unseeded Chiang Mei-hui of Taiwan in the third round yesterday.

However, she has one more shot at coming good in the Asian Juniors in the girls’ doubles event. Partnering Sonia, they are through for a match against India’s Ghate Gauri-Sawant Prajakta to qualify for the quarter-finals.

Star

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Rajagobal Let Off The Hook

PETALING JAYA, April 24 (Bernama) -- National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed. FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach. "After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement. "Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday. Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to com...

Atlet Tempuhi Empat Kejohanan Besar Sebelum Olimpik Rio 2016

KUALA LUMPUR, 31 Mei (Bernama) -- Empat temasya sukan penting yang dijadual berlangsung mulai Disember ini hingga 2015 menjadi medan persiapan atlet negara sebelum menghadapi cabaran Sukan Olimpik 2016 di Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, kata Menteri Belia dan Sukan, Khairy Jamaluddin Jumaati. Kejohanan berkenaan ialah Sukan SEA di Myanmar pada Disember, Sukan Asia 2014 di Incheon, Korea Selatan, Sukan Komanwel 2014 di Glasgow, Scotland dan Sukan SEA 2015 di Singapura. Bercakap kepada pemberita selepas melawat Majlis Sukan Negara (MSN) di Bukit Jalil di sini, Khairy berkata kesemua temasya sukan itu dilihat amat penting dalam memastikan impian negara untuk membawa pulang pingat emas Olimpik pertama menjadi kenyataan. "Kita di Kementerian Belia dan Sukan (KBS) mahupun MSN akan memastikan semua atlet mendapat bantuan sewajarnya dalam melakukan persiapan ke arah membawa pulang pingat emas pertama negara di Rio de Janeiro, Brazil nanti," katanya. Dalam perkemb...

Ex-coach's jail sentence cut to a year

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal yesterday sentenced former athletics coach C. Ramanathan to 12 months' jail for molesting two junior athletes 19 years ago. A three-man bench led by Datuk Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus unanimously dismissed Ramanathan's appeal against conviction, but varied the jail sentence of four years to a year, which was to run concurrently. Following yesterday's ruling, Ramanathan, 75, a former teacher, walked out a free man as he had served 10 months in Kajang Prison. Convicts get one-third remission for good behaviour while in prison. However, he will lose his pension. Hishamudin, who sat with Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail and Datuk Linton Albert, said the court found no merit to overturn the conviction. "However, in reducing the sentence, we considered Ramanathan's age and the long years the appeal has taken." Deputy public prosecutor Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud submitted that then High Court judge Tan Sri Abdull Hamid E...