KUALA LUMPUR: The national women’s sepak takraw squad created history when it grabbed the silver medal in the women’s regu at the 29th SEA Games at the Titiwangsa Indoor Stadium, improving on the bronze that it won in Singapore in the last edition.
In the final round robin match against Thailand, both teams needed to win to confirm the gold medal after Malaysia and Thailand were tied with four points through the win against Indonesia and the Philippines yesterday.
The Thailand regu led by Thidarat Soda started strongly and easily beat the national regu 21-10 in the first set.
The national squad tried to make a comeback in the second set but the Thais were clearly in a class of their own when they again beat the Malaysians 21-12.
the defeat saw the national squad lifting the silver with four points overall while thailand collected six points to grab the gold medal as the champion.
The Philippines and Indonesia should share the bronze medal based on the championship’s format which does not have the deciding match for the third and fourth placing.
However, yesterday’s incident which saw the Indonesians protesting and leaving the court resulted in the team not qualifying for the bronze medal.
“We all know that Thailand is a strong team. Thus, we accept the decision awarding the silver medal to Malaysia.
“My players put up their best performance but there were still several weaknesses which needed to be overcome in future,” said national coach Md Fikri Md Nor.
For the record, this is the first time the national women’s squad won the silver medal and it is their best performance so far in the SEA Games. - Bernama