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

Uber Cub: Malaysian squad Can Spring A Surprise - Ahmad Shabery

KUALA LUMPUR, April 29 (Bernama) -- Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Ahmad Shabery Cheek remains confident that the national Uber Cup squad can spring a surprise when Malaysia hosts the Thomas and Uber Cup finals at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil from May 9-16. He said despite not being the favourite, the women's team was able to surprise everyone by winning the gold medal at the Laos SEA Games. "I am confident they (Uber Cup team) will be able to produce a similar surprise. Not only are they capable of reaching the semi-final, they can go further," he told reporters after having lunch with national shuttlers here Thursday. National badminton Team manager Datuk Syed Abu Bakar Abdullah who echoed the minister's confidence said: "In Laos, nobody expected the women's team to win the world, so why not the Uber Cup? All they need to do is try their very best." Women's team captain Wong Pei Tty said she and her team-mates have set a target of r...

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...

Malaysian junior athletes are just too ‘lembik’

Saya setuju. We are working on more coaches! “ @ManOlimpik : Malaysian junior athletes are just too ‘lembik’ http://t.co/7D7wmHWaNy ” — Khairy Jamaluddin (@Khairykj) June 10, 2014 The benchmark. Can our junior athletes train as hard as Malaysia's world No.1 badminton player, Lee Chong Wei? “IT IS okay lah. The training is not too bad lah. I will try lah … Wah, so hard lah today.” These are some of the common statements I hear from our juniors nowadays. It is not only in badminton. It is the easy-going, laid-back attitude and lack of competitiveness at grassroots level that we have problems producing quality players. I have travelled quite a bit. After ending my decade-long career with the national team, I went to play in the league in Europe. It’s different there. The European athletes know what they want. And they do it with real focus. Even the young ones possess admirable self-control and show a high level of commitment. During my time in the ...