Malaysia sweep all four titles at Asian Championships

Malaysia created history when they made a clean sweep of all the four titles at stake for the first time in the Asian Junior squash championships in Chennai yesterday.

No country has won all four titles since the inception of the championships in Singapore in 1983.

Malaysia completed the clean sweep when they won the boys’ and girls’ team titles in the finals yesterday.

Ivan Yuen, who bagged the boys’ individual title on Monday, led Malaysia to a 2-0 win over second seeds India for the team title.

Ivan, who finished runners-up in the British Junior Open Under-19 category recently, chalked up an easy 11-4, 11-2, 11-7 win over Aditya Jagtap in the first tie.

Kamran Khan then avenged his defeat to Ravi Dixit in the quarter-finals of the individual event to deliver the winning point with an 11-7, 8-11, 11-6, 11-8 win.

The Malaysian girls also scored a 2-0 win over fourth seeds South Korea in their final.

Three-time Asian junior champion Low Wee Wern set the ball rolling for Malaysia with an 11-9, 11-8, 11-2 win over Sun Mi-song.

Her younger sister Wee Nee the sealed the title with an easy 11-4, 11-4, 11-7 win over Ji Hyun-lee.

In 2001, Malaysia won three of the four titles at stake also in Chennai.

Then Mohd Azlan Iskandar and Nicol David won the boys’ and girls’ individual titles and the girls’ team crown.

Team manager K. Sivanesen was delighted to see his charges dominate the championships.

“We came to Chennai to create history and we did just that,” he said.

“Winning all four titles is exceptionally good for the future of squash in Malaysia.”

There was more joy for Malaysia when Squash Racquet Association of Malaysia (SRAM) president Datuk A. Sani Karim won the election in Chennai to become the new Asian Squash Federation (ASF) president yesterday.