SARAWAK DENIES SELANGOR THE OVERALL TITLE

FINAL DAY 18th March 2011

Women's Team Champioin - Sarawak - From Left - Nurafisza Bt Mohd Amran, Dayang Khairuniza, Jacqueiline Sijori & Caroline Chien

It was a night of celebrations for Sarawak as they finally stepped out of their shadows as a rising force to win the overall title from perennial force Selangor, in the Astro 24th Interstate championship which ended tonight at the Sunway Mega Lanes.

Men's Team Champioin from Selangor - From Left Zulmazran Zulkifli, Daniel Lim, Alex Liew & Zaid Izran

Sarawak would have had another reason to celebrate, if only their starlet Jacqueline Jenellee Sijore, had completed a grand slam to win all four gold medals at stake.

But Jacqueline who won gold medals in singles, doubles and team event, had to settle for the silver in the Women’s All Events, when her national and State teammate Dayang Khairuniza Dhiyana pipped her to the gold medal by 51 pins with her grand total of 3844.

Perak’s Sin Li Jane won the bronze with her total 3667.

However, Sarawak winning both the Women’s team (Dayang, Nurafidza Mohd Amran, Caroline Chien Chin Yii and Jacqueline) event and All-Events gold medal, it meant they were in line to upstage Selangor for the overall title.

The Sarawak women’s team had a total of 4859 to win the gold, while the team from Kuala Lumpur won the silver (4699) and Selangor won the bronze (4660).

But Sarawak’s celebrations were put on hold with the Men’s Team event still not completed, where Selangor were in the driver’s seat to win their fourth gold, while Alex Liew was battling for their fifth gold from the All-events.

While Selangor confirmed the team gold, Penang’s Adrian Ang did Sarawak a favour when he went to win his second gold in the All-events to keep Alex in second place with his total score of 3902 – 31 pins ahead of the latter.

Selangor’s national bowlers team of Alex, Daniel Lim, Zulmazran Zulkifli and former national back-up elite member Zaid Izlan Ibrahim Hakimi, won their gold medal with a grand total of 5018, while Kuala Lumpur settled for the silver with their total of 4769. Penang won the bronze with their total of 4709.

With Selangor and Sarawak both tied on four gold medals, it was the silver medals which was the decider for the overall title and with the latter had two silver medals as compared to the former’s one, Sarawak were declared the overall champion.

Sarawak also won the Women’s overall title with their four gold and one silver haul.Selangor’s only consolation was that they bagged the Men’s overall title with two gold, one silver and one bronze haul.Sarawak coach Jackson Ting was modest in victory.

“It is great to have become the overall champion dislodging Selangor, but it was our women bowlers who pulled us through,” said the former national bowler.

“It is a great morale booster to have won the title and for our future, but we still have a lot of work to do, especially with our youth bowlers who have been our forte to have come this far.

“While some of the youth bowlers have graduated to become senior members, some have left. We have come here with a very young youth team and we have to work hard to get them to a higher level.

"I also have thank the national coaches headed by Holloway Cheah and MTBC for having picked several of the Sarawak bowlers to become national youth and national bowlers. Their training with the national squad and the exposure they gained, has certainly played a vital part in our success here."

Jacqueline on the other hand was on Cloud Nine despite having missed the Grand Slam to win all four gold medals.

“It is still a great outing to have won three gold, one silver and emerge as the overall champion,” said Jacqueline.

“In any case, the All-events gold was still own by Sarawak (Dayang) and that earned us the overall title.”

Dayang said that it was a close battle between herself and Jacqueline and it was all in the game.

“It did not matter whether I won or Jacqueline, as long it was won by Sarawak,” said Dayang.

“I have been bowling well all three days and did not have an individual gold medal to show and am glad that I finally won. Infact, it was two gold medals today (team event) and I cannot ask for a better ending,” said Dayang.

“Besides, I also qualify for the Masters automatically as the All-events champion and that is added bonus.”

Ten out of 14 States competing returned home with medals and the spread of the medals among the State augurs well for the sport as it only meant that many States have taken the sports seriously and a lot of development work has been put in.

The 35th Malaysian National championship for the Masters titles will be held tomorrow.

The top 14 men from the Master Open qualifiers, the defending champion (Aaron Kong) and All-events champion (Adrian) to make up the 16 qualifiers for the Masters Open.

In the Women’s Open category, the top ten qualifiers, the defending champion (Sin Li Jane) and the All-events champion (Dayang) will be the 12 to compete in the Masters.

The other Masters categories are Men and Ladies Graded and Boys and Girls Open.

The qualifiers were ongoing to late this morning (Saturday).


FINAL MEDAL TALLY

                                 G         S          B

Sarawak                   4          2          1

Selangor                   4          1          5

Penang                     2          1          2

Sabah                       2          1          1

Kuala Lumpur          1          4          1

Malacca                   1          1          1

Negri Sembilan        1          0          1

Perak                       0          4          2

Johor                       0          2          1

Pahang                     0          0          2