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Sepaktakraw: Thailand proved too strong for Malaysia

THERE was not much to cheer for the Malaysian fans at Titiwangsa Stadium yesterday as Thailand tore apart the national side in the inaugural Sepaktakraw World Cup final.
Malaysia started off the match nervously with tekong Noor Azman Abdul Hamid netting numerous serves and found it hard to return Thai tekong Siriwat Sakha's sharp, driven serves and lost the game 15-4.

The second game saw national coach Jamaluddin Hassan replacing error-prone Noor Azman with Syazwan Husin while trailing 2-6.

Syazwan proved to be a marginal improvement but his efforts were not enough to stop them losing 15-6.
Malaysia play more fluidly in the third game and managed to match Thailand point-for-point in the earlier stages until Thailand replaced the tiring Siriwat with Kriangkrai Kaewmian at 9 all.

Kriangkrai's variation and well-disguised serves broke the Malaysian's rhythm. Thailand soon won 15-4, 15-6, 15-11.

Thai coach Kamol Tankimhong said: "It is quite often that a home side gets nervous playing in front of their supporters and it was clearly affecting Malaysia's performance today."

National coach Jamaluddin said his side clearly have much work to do if they are to have any chance of beating Thailand in future tournaments.

"This tournament has shown us that we clearly need to improve on the consistency and pace of our serves as that was one of the major reasons we lost."

Thailand were also crowned women's champions after beating Vietnam 15-7, 15-2, 15-7 in a repeat of last year's Asian Games final.

The national women's team were bundled out in the semi-finals by Vietnam 15-5, 12-15, 15-4, 15-5.

Thailand received US$8,000 (RM26,880) as men's champions while Malaysia took home RM13,440 as runners-up. The Thai women won RM16,800 while Vietnam received RM8,400.

Read more: NST

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