Day: June 9, 2024

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia’s tower run ace Soh Wai Ching faced some difficulty in the 2024 DC Tower Run at the DC Tower in Vienna, Austria, on Saturday and only managed to finish as runner-up.

According to a statement, the 30-year-old claimed second place with an overall time of five minutes and 58 seconds to finish the 58 floors in the inaugural race, which attracted 600 participants and was sanctioned by the Towerrunning World Association.

Wai Ching sprinted all the way up until the third floor, then cruised into a steady pace.

He then started to fade away at the halfway point on the 29th floor due to lactic acid build up before getting back up to finish the race after Japanese runner Ryoji Watanabe, who finished in first place with an overall time of 5:47.2s.

Wai Ching collapsed after the crossing the finishing line but was back on his feet a short while later.

The third place was secured by Italian Fabio Ruga, who took 5:59.6s to finish the climb.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

JAKARTA, National men’s doubles pair Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun blew a first-game win to go down 21-19, 16-21, 12-21 to China’s Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang in the final of the Indonesia Open at the Istora Senayan here today.

The world number 20 Wei Chong-Kai Wun did well to win the opening game in their first major final but failed to keep the momentum going in the next two as the world number two from China fought back to clinch victory in 55 minutes.

The Malaysians have yet to beat the China pair in four meetings in the past two years.

‘In the third game, they quickly got into their rhythm, so it was difficult for us to catch up.

‘We still have a lot to learn, especially in terms of confidence and mentality. We weren’t bad in this tournament,’ Wei Chong said.

Kai Wun then chipped in: ‘In the first game, they just followed our playing style. In the third game, they changed their strategy and we couldn’t get the points. We will now prepare for the Japan Open and South Korea Open.’

Wei Chong-Kai Wun had ad
vanced to the final by defeating home favourites Sabar Karyaman Gutama-Moh Reza Pahlevi Isfahani 29-27, 21-13 in 45 minutes.

In the other semi-final, Wei Keng-Wang Chang downed Denmark’s Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen 21-13, 21-15 in 32 minutes.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR: Rising squash players Sanjay Jeeva and K Sehveetrra put on a splendid performance to deliver the mixed team event gold for Malaysia at the South East Asian (SEA) Cup Squash Championship by beating hosts, the Philippines 2-0, today.

Sanjay, who won the men’s singles title on Wednesday, scored the first point by beating David Pelino 11-5, 11-8, 11-7 in 24 minutes at the Rizal Memorial Sports Complex in Manila, while teammate Sehveetrra downed Jemyca Aribado 11-1, 12-10, 11-5 in 28 minutes to confirm the title, sparing fellow teammates Muhammad Hafiz Abdul Zhafri Abdul Harif, Duncan Lee and women’s player J Yasshmita the need to step foot into court for the final.

‘I think my match was good, but I had a little pressure and had to give some easy points, which helped her to chase back, but still I managed to outplay her and win in straight sets. Everyone did their best and nobody showed any poor performance in any of their matches (en route to win title),’ Sehveetrra said.

Apart from the men’s sin
gles and mixed team gold medals, Malaysia’s Ainaa Amani Ampandi also took women’s singles crown while Ong Sai Hung-Ainaa bagged the mixed doubles title.

In addition, Sai Hung and Chan Yiwen won silver medals in the men’s and women’s singles events, respectively.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

KUALA LUMPUR: National striker Faizal Saari scored a hattrick to steer Malaysia to a 5-4 win over Austria and finish seventh out of nine countries in the 2024 Nations Cup in Gniezno, Poland today.

The Speedy Tigers shot into a second-minute lead in the seventh-eighth placing playoff through a Muhammad Azrai Aizad Abu Kamal field goal before Faizal doubled their lead with a penalty corner goal in the 18th minute.

World number 19 Austria narrowed the gap to 2-1 when Fulop Losonci scored with a penalty stroke in the 21st minute but Mohammad Fitri Saari restored Malaysia’s two-goal lead when he converted a stroke two minutes later.

His elder brother, Faizal then completed his hattrick with two field goals in two minutes (32nd, 33rd) to put the Speedy Tigers 5-1 up.

Instead of coasting to victory, world number 13 Malaysia allowed Austria to fight back with goals from Maximilian Scholz (34th, 51st) and Arthur Kucera (49th) before holding on for the slim win.

Malaysian head coach Sarjit Singh, though pleased wi
th the five goals they scored, was clearly annoyed with his team for conceding three goals in the second half.

“Quite disappointing to let in three goals when leading 5-1. This malaise needs to be stopped immediately. Our two young players, Muhamad Faris Harizan and Azimuddin Syakir Kamaruddin, shone and were consistent throughout this tournament, they played very well.

“Overall, we managed to score many goals and always started well. We look forward to working on improving our weaknesses,’ he said.

The Speedy Tigers finished third in Group B after drawing 4-4 with Pakistan, losing 3-1 to France and beating Canada 4-2 to miss out on the semi-finals.

The national team then lost 4-3 to South Korea in the fifth-eighth classification match.

Sarjit’s men’s next assignment will be the Asian Champions Trophy in Inner Mongolia, China from Sept 8-17.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

PETALING JAYA: The Sportswriters Association of Malaysia (SAM) will adopt the National Athletes Welfare Foundation (YAKEB) to bolster efforts in ensuring the welfare of its members.

SAM acting secretary Bazly Azmi said that the association was prepared to strengthen its agenda, including being more active in reaching out to its members and former sportswriters in the country.

“Maybe after this we will visit more sportswriters, the legends in the Malaysian sportswriting field… Better aid for them to celebrate Aidilfitri or during Ramadan,’ he said after the SAM-YAKEB Tenpin Bowling competition here today.

‘We see an increase in teams and also more SAM and YAKEB members turning up to make this event a success,’ YAKEB chairman Datuk Noorul Ariffin Abdul Majeed said, adding that almost 100 media practitioners took part in the second edition of the competition at Sunway Pyramid here.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency