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Roberto triumphs in Kuching BorneoPost Online | Borneo , Malaysia, Sarawak Daily News » Sports - New 2 Borneo

Roberto triumphs in Kuching

Posted: 06 Apr 2014 04:01 PM PDT

by Ting Tieng Hee reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on April 7, 2014, Monday

KUCHING: Roberto Ortega-Olmedo had a very fruitful week in Kuching where he picked his first professional title of the season at the Sarawak Lawn Tennis Association (SLTA) Tennis Centre yesterday.

The ATP No. 338 player outclassed his good friend and training mate Carlos Boluda-Purkiss, the ATP No. 631 player, 6-0, 6-2 in the singles final of the  ITF Men's Futures US$15,000 tournament.

He received a trophy and US$2,160 in prize money while Carlos collected a trophy and US$1,272.

"I am so happy to win here today and it was really different when I arrived in Kuching earlier in the week from Manila feeling not so good," an elated Roberto said after the prize presentation.

The 22-year-old from Madrid exited from the quarter-finals of the Philippines leg of the ITF Men's Futures US$15,000, first round of Men's Futures US$10,000 in Turkey and second round

of the Men's Futures US$15,000 in France before coming to Kuching.

"I played well in the second round until today and it wasn't easy to beat Carlos as we know each other's game. I was nervous at first and when I won the game 1-0 and led 4-0, my confidence level rose," said the tournament third seed who had beaten Carlos 6-2, 6-2 in the second round in Manila.

His good run in the tournament began with a 6-2, 7-6(3) win over compatriot A Sanjuro Hermida in the first round.

He next beat Chinese Taipei's Ho Chih-Jen 6-2, 6-2 in the second round and went on to defeat another Chinese Taipei challenger Hung Jui-Chen, the eighth seed, 6-4, 6-2 in the last eight.

Roberto's best result in this competition was upstaging top seed and ATP No. 246 Benjamin Mitchell of Australia 6-4, 2-0 (retired) in the semi-finals on Friday. It was the second best win of his professional career after also competing in other Men's Futures US$10,000 events and Challenger series.

This was Roberto's first win in Malaysia and he was impressed with the tennis facilities at SLTA, saying: "The courts here and the balls used here are better than in Manila."

It will also boost his confidence as he heads to Chengdu, China today to play in two Men's Futures US$15,000 tournaments and two Challenger events.

Roberto and Carlos are coached by Oscar Burrieza.

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SSCO to facililate new muaythai body

Posted: 06 Apr 2014 04:00 PM PDT

KUCHING: The Sarawak Sports Commission Office (SSCO) will do all they can to help ensure that Sarawak has a state muaythai association soon.

Speaking to The Borneo Post yesterday, Sarawak Sports Commissioner (SSC) Lamat Nyalau gave the assurance that he understood the need for a muaythai state body urgently as there is a significant following in the sport.

"There used to be an (muaythai) association here in Sarawak a few years ago, but it was de-registered as there was simply too many irregularities in the association's activities. It was de-registered last year in November," he explained.

He felt sorry for followers of the sport in Sarawak and expressed the hope that those interested in forming a state muaythai association follow all SSCO guidelines and procedures.

To form a state sports association, he said, the association must first be made of at least four divisional affiliate member associations.

"I have spoken to a few of them who are interested in forming the state muaythai association and they too have been briefed on the procedures and guidelines," he added.

Apart from that, a supporting letter from the national body is also needed. SSCO will also help out by submitting details about the new association to the national body which will be given two weeks to reply the SSCO's request with the supporting letter.

"We will try our best to get the letter from the national body. Should the national body fail to reply on time (after two weeks), the SSCO will then approve the formation of the state body without the supporting letter," he said.  The urgent need for a state muaythai association was raised by Ministry of Social Development (KPS) permanent secretary Affandi Keli at a press conference in his office last month.

As a temporary measure, the Kuching Muaythai Association (PMK) was tasked to take the lead following the deregistration of the state body last year.

All sports associations in the state are required to register with the Sarawak Sports Commission Office since Jan 1, 2011. The law was first implemented in Peninsular Malaysia on Jan 19, 1998.

Before the implementation of this law, all sports associations were required to register with the Registar of Societies (ROS).

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United clash ‘life or death’ for Bayern

Posted: 06 Apr 2014 03:57 PM PDT

BERLIN: Pep Guardiola described Bayern Munich's Champions League quarter-final clash against Manchester United as a "matter of life or death" after his team's record unbeaten Bundesliga run was ended at Augsburg.

The Bavarian giants suffered their first Bundesliga defeat since October 2012 on Saturday as their 53-match unbeaten league run was ended when they lost 1-0 at Bavarian rivals Augsburg.

With one eye on the quarter-final, second leg at home to United, and with the Bundesliga title already secured, Guardiola paid the price for naming a weakened team.

Having drawn the first-leg 1-1 at Old Trafford, David Moyes' United will face a different Bayern team at Munich's Allianz Arena, but the Augsburg result leaves the European champions winless in their last three games.

"Sooner or later we had to lose, we accept that and we have to prepare as quickly as possible for Manchester United," said head coach Guardiola.

"Next Wednesday is a final for us. It's a matter of life or death."

Guardiola started with three teenagers at Augsburg, giving Bundesliga debuts to wing-backs Ylli Sallahi and Mitchell Weiser while Pierre-Emile Hoejbjerg was named on the left wing.

The gamble backfired when Weiser lost possession to Augsburg's Daniel Baier who fed Sascha Moelders and the Augsburg striker blasted his shot past Bayern's goalkeeper Manuel Neuer with 31 minutes gone to claim the winning goal.

"We tried everything and fought until the end," said Guardiola.

"We have no complaints, we lost because the opponent was better than us. That's football. You can't always win."

He could have easily fielded a stronger side and after his team went behind for the third match in succession, Guardiola responded by bringing stars Mario Goetze, David Alaba and Thomas Mueller off the bench.

Left-back Alaba hit the post with 68 minutes gone, while Goetze and Muller went close as Bayern pushed in vain for the goal to keep alive hopes of becoming the first team to go through a Bundesliga campaign undefeated.

"That hurts a bit," admitted midfielder Mueller.

"We wanted to defend our unbeaten run, but we just didn't produce on the pitch what we are capable of. The fact is that it's never easy to win at Augsburg, but it was not the plan to go home with a defeat."

Both Javi Martinez and Bastian Schweinsteiger are suspended for the United clash, meaning Toni Kroos and captain Philipp Lahm are likely to pair up in the defensive midfield.

Goalkeeper Manuel Neuer said the main thing was to come through the Augsburg match without injuries.

"We took Augsburg seriously, but the main thing is that no-one is injured," said Neuer as Bayern failed to score for the first time this season in all competitions.

"It's all about Wednesday and the game against Manchester, nothing else matters."

Having lost 4-2 at Borussia Dortmund in July's German Super Cup final and beaten 3-2 at home to Manchester City in the Champions League group stage last December, this was only Bayern's third defeat of the season. — AFP

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Leicester promoted to Premier League

Posted: 06 Apr 2014 03:56 PM PDT

LONDON: Leicester City clinched promotion to the Premier League without kicking a ball on Saturday as their two main rivals both lost.

Nigel Pearson's side had already beaten Sheffield Wednesday 2-1 on Friday to move within touching distance of a return to the English top-flight for the first time since 2004.

And the Championship leaders were able to celebrate confirmation of their promotion less than 24 hours later as third placed QPR lost 2-1 at Bournemouth, while fourth placed Derby crashed 1-0 at Middlesbrough.

Tommy Elphick and Lewis Grabban scored to win it for Bournemouth either side of Armand Traore's replay for QPR, while on-loan Chelsea midfielder Nathaniel Chalobah struck in the 69th minute to give Middlesbrough victory over Derby.

Those results ensured a top-two finish for the big-spending Foxes, who are owned by a Thai consortium backed by chairman Vichai Srivaddhanaprabha.

Leicester's promotion has been on the cards for several weeks after they surged nine points clear of second placed Burnley thanks to a superb 21-game unbeaten run.

They already have 89 points, two more than Cardiff's final total when the Welsh club won promotion as second tier champions last season.

With six games still to play, Pearson's men can focus on finishing top and possibly cracking the 100-point barrier.

Leicester goalkeeper Kasper Schmeichel, son of Manchester United legend Peter Schmeichel, insists his team aren't satisfied with just winning promotion because they want to end the season with the Championship trophy as well.

"Achieving promotion was our aim but we want to win the league, no question of that," he told Sky Sports News.

"Tonight we celebrate but everyone who knows the mentality of the team or the coaching staff knows as soon as tonight's over we get back to work.

"We want to keep pushing on and we'll be back working hard ahead of Tuesday's game at home to Brighton.

"We've had belief all the way through the season. We can look back and see when we scored late goals and had that never-say-die attitude.

"That helped us immensely all the way through the season and it's testimony to the players and coaching staff that everyone's worked really well together." — AFP

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Norris sets torrid pace, amazing Grace delivers

Posted: 05 Apr 2014 10:10 AM PDT

by Eikman Teo & Matthew Umpang reporters@theborneopost.com. Posted on April 6, 2014, Sunday

KUCHING:  Norris Foo and Grace Wong stamped their authority on the track and field respectively on the final day of the 42nd MSS Sarawak Meet at the Jubilee Ground yesterday.

The championship was brought to a thrilling finish as Kuching chased Miri all the away into the last five events – the 4 x 400m relays – to decide the overall team champions.

Kuching won four races with a second place.

Miri won only one but did enough in the other four to amass 459.5 points for the 4-day meet.

The Kuching athletes ended with a tally of 456. It was that close.

But the final day action belonged to Sibu sprinter Norris Foo and Sarikei thrower Grace Wong.

Norris was going for her third gold medal of the meet.

She had already won the 100m (a new record: 12.26 sec) and 100m hurdles (15.45 sec) for the Girl's Under-18.

In the semi-finals of the 200m on Friday, the 16-year-old had already returned 25.68 sec to re-write Syaza Majeri's eight year old record of 26.20 sec.

Yesterday, the student of Tabuan Jaya Sports School set the track on fire with a time of 25.49 sec.

Her time is also better than the Sarawak state record of 25.56 sec established by Hii Siew Ngiik 20 years ago.

Yesterday, Norris finished 1.5 sec ahead of her nearest competitor for a distance usually decided by tenths of a second.

Meanwhile, 14 year-old Grace completely outclassed the field of ten in the Shot Put for Girl's Under-14.

The Sarikei High student smashed her own record set last year (11.28m) with four of her six throws over 12m culminating in the best distance of 12.57m.

That was 2.47m further than her nearest rival.

It is also better than the national Under-15 schools record of 11.22m

This was her second gold in the championship after winning the Hammer throw two days ago.

One record was equalled and eleven others broken at the end of the championship.

Norris' sensational timing in the 200m brings to two the number of state open records being eclipsed during the meet.

On Thursday, Bintulu's Jonathan Tinggang had cleared 2.05m in the high jump for Boy's Under-18 to surpass the Sarawak state record of 2.03m.

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Sarawak top MSSM table tennis in KL

Posted: 05 Apr 2014 10:06 AM PDT

by Ting Tieng Hee. Posted on April 6, 2014, Sunday

KUCHING: Sarawak junior paddlers enjoyed a very fruitful outing at the Malaysian Schools Sports Council (MSSM) table tennis championship at SJK(c) Tsun Jin, Kuala Lumpur recently.

They captured five gold, three silver and six bronze medals to clinch the overall championship crown in the meet that was participated by 16 teams.

This was the best achievement in the last three years as Sarawak emerged second last year in Labuan with five golds, two silvers and four bronzes while they finished third in Kelantan in 2012 with only one gold, two silvers and one bronze.

Categories competed were Boys/Girls U18 singles, doubles and team, and Boys/Girls U12 singles, doubles and team.

Sarawak, represented by 15 boys and 15 girls and accompanied by 10 officials,

did very well in the U12 competition which yielded four golds.

Too Ying Chuen led the Boys U12 team of Louis Chung Kian Fu, Joel Chen Yu Chen, Christopher Isaac Goh-Kho Hian Hui and Alan Teo Kie to bag the team gold and the Girls U12 team comprising Sammi Tay, Tay Lynn Jia, Karen Lyne Dick, Fion Soh Jia Xi and Chong Chiung were victorious in the team competition.

Ying Chuen then partnered Louis Chung to win the Boys U12 doubles while Tay Lynn Jia partnered Sammy Tay to lift the Girls U12 doubles gold.

The other gold was delivered by Ying Chuen who won the Boys U12 singles.

It was his third gold of the competition.

Jason Siau, Clement Sim, Ling Chin Sing, Alex Lo Lik Fu and Calvin Chieng Chun won the Boys U18 team silver while Clement Sim and Jason Siau were Boys U18 silver medallists.

Sarawak's third silver came from Karen Lyne Dick in the Girls U12 singles.

Meanwhile, the bronzes were contributed by the Girls U18 team (Crystal Tiong, Kylie Teo, Sia Hsiao Hung, Sia Hsiao Ching, Alice Chang), Boys U12 doubles (Joel Chen and Alan Teo), Boys U12 singles (Christopher Isaac Goh-Kho), Girls U12 singles (Tay Lynn Jia), Boys U18 singles (Alex Lo) and Girls U18 singles (Crystal Tiong).

The leader of the Sarawak contingent was Sarikei District Education Officer Radin Foji Radin Abdul Rahim while the team manager was Wong Tung.

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