Skip to main content

Nicol-powered women win 8th title, men falter in final

Nicol David returns a shot to Hong Kong's Joey Chan in the final of the Asian Team Championship.
Nicol David returns a shot to Hong Kong's Joey Chan in the final of the Asian Team Championship.

PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian women stamped their mark in the region with an eighth Asian Team Championship title by beating hosts Hong Kong in the final.

World No. 1 Nicol David proved too sharp for Hong Kong’s Joey Chan by winning 11-3, 11-2, 7-11, 11-6 to hand Malaysia the 2-0 win on Tuesday.

Earlier, national No. 2 Low Wee Wern set the team on their way, thrashing Liu Tsz Ling 11-2, 11-5, 11-7.

The win meant the world to Wee Wern who faltered two years ago as Malaysia lost to Hong Kong in the semi-finals then.

“Four years ago, we had Nicol in the team and failed to win while in 2012, I was leading the team but we lost in the semi-finals. So to get the title back definitely felt great,” said Wee Wern.

“It’s a different feeling playing for the country in team events and I’m really happy to deliver the first point.

“As for my match, I’ve never really played Tsz Ling before but I’m the higher ranked player and the pressure was on me to deliver,” added the world No. 7.

Meanwhile, the men found themselves on the losing end against second seeds Pakistan.

National No. 2 Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan had given the team a dream start by beating Farhan Zaman 10-12, 11-3, 9-11, 11-6, 11-8.

But the experienced Ong Beng Hee, who had delivered crucial wins over Hong Kong’s Max Lee in the quarter-finals and India’s Saurav Ghosal in the semi-finals, lost to Nasir Iqbal 8-11, 11-8, 5-11, 7-11.

In the deciding tie, Ivan Yuen tried hard but was outclassed by Farhan Mehboob 7-11, 5-11, 6-11 as Pakistan grabbed their 14th Asian title with the 2-1 win.

“Beng Hee tried but two fantastic matches in the previous days was already more than I can ask of him. There was a gulf in class between Ivan and Farhan,” said Squash Racquets Association of Malaysia (SRAM) director of coaching Allan Soyza.



Comments

Popular posts from this blog

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 ...

Badminton: Fans rooting for all-Malaysian semis

Reports: RAJES PAUL KUALA LUMPUR: The home fans will be rooting for an all-Malaysian men’s singles semi-final between Lee Chong Wei and Liew Daren. But Chong Wei is more fancied to advance than Daren in quarter-final matches against Indonesian Simon Santoso and Dane Peter Gade-Christensen respectively at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil today. Yesterday, Chong Wei defeated Vietnamese Nguyen Tien Minh 21-9, 18-21, 21-7 in a second-round match that saw the world number one struggling to adapt to the draught in the stadium in the second game. And Daren continued a fairy tale run in his home Open, blowing away a toothless Hsueh Hsuan-yi of Taiwan 21-14, 21-12. Although Choong Wei had to slog for the win over Tien Minh, the top seed and defending champion felt that he was playing better by the day. “I got off to a good start but found it hard to cope with the draught. I tried to catch up after losing my momentum but that did not happen and I decided to conserve energy for ...

Organising Major Sports Events Can Inspire Sports Culture Among The People - Khairy

PUTRAJAYA, June 5 (Bernama) -- Organising major sports events can help inspire sports culture among the people and ensure a healthy lifestyle said Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin. Khairy said the Tour of Malaysia cycling race organised since 1963, for example, can encourage more people to take the sport in a more competitive way or just for recreation purposes. "A study carried out by a world renown medical journal, The Lancet, revealed that 61 percent of adults in Malaysia do not engage themselves in active sports. "A study by the Health Ministry revealed that only 25 percent of Malaysians exercise," he said in his speech when launching the 2013 Tour of Malaysia (Jelajah Malaysia) at the Youth and Sports Ministry, here, Wednesday. "Cycling, though not as popular here as in countries like Denmark, the activity is becoming popular among the people as can be seen through an increase in sale of bicycles for recreation," he sa...