Sarawak ends Sukma XXI squash meet with silver in mixed team final

KUCHING (Aug 23): Sarawak completed its challenge in the squash competition of Sukma XXI today with a silver medal in the mixed team final played at the Sarawak Squash Centre along Jalan Diplomatik.

With the silver, state players collected a total of two gold, one silver and two bronze medals to be crowned as the overall champions.

The team had captured the golds through Harith Danial Jefri and Nathalie Sim Shu Eng in the mixed doubles and Harith and Altamis Aqhar Sallam A Sufian in the men’s doubles.

Contributing the bronzes were Eugenia Sulan David and Altamis Aqhar in the mixed doubles and Nathalie Sim Shu Eng and Whitney Isabelle Wilson in the women’s doubles.

In today’s mixed team final against Negeri Sembilan, Ameeshenraj Chandaran was simply too good for Sarawak’s Hii Jia Rong, beating him 11-2, 11-4, 11-3 in the men’s singles to hand Negeri Sembilan the first point.

Eugenia and Altamis stepped up to beat Chen Yu Jie and Isaac George Varughese Vivek 9-11, 11-7, 11-10 in the mixed doubles to level the score at 1-1.

Harith and Desmond Ong Sheng Yan then beat Qayyum Adam Khairul Hilmi and Shamiel Haeyzad Shahrulhisam 11-10, 10-11, 11-4 in the men’s doubles to extend Sarawak’s lead to 2-1.

However, it was all square again as Yasshmita Jadishkumar outplayed Lee Xin Yii 11-4, 11-4, 11-3 in the women’s singles.

Nathalie Sim and Whitney could not rise to the occasion to deliver the winning point in the deciding match as they lost 6-11, 8-11 in the women’s doubles to Harleein Tan and Haneesha Veerakumar.