KUCHING (July 27): Sarawak’s Harith Danial Jefri went another level up on Sunday to bag the CIMB Foundation National Junior Circuit Leg 1 Boys Under-19 crown.
The National Boys U17 top seed from Miri took 43 minutes to overcome the challenge of second seed Wasern Low of Perak 3-2 in the final at the Nicol David International Squash Centre in Penang.
The 16-year-old of Bukit Jalil Sports School and tournament top seed, who is ranked 468th under the Professional Squash Association (PSA), won the first two sets 11-4, 11-4, but Low came back fighting to win the third and fourth sets 12-10, 11-3.
In the decider, Harith overcame his opponent to win 11-3.
He kicked off his campaign with a walkover in the first round and then went on to beat teammate Desmond Ong 3-0 (11-3, 11-9, 11-2) in the quarterfinals before seeing off Aiden Yunus of Selangor 3-0 (11-5, 11-5, 11-6) in the semi-finals.
Meanwhile, joint 3/4 seed Hi Jia Rong, also from Sarawak, finished in fourth place in the same category after losing 1-3 (11-9, 8-11, 11-9, 9-11) to Tay Jun Qian of Selangor in the playoff.
Lee Xin Yii put up an impressive performance in the Girls U15 as the 13-year-old from Miri, who was upgraded to the category, finished fourth while teammate Agatha Cheng Si Ching placed fifth.
Other Sarawakians who finished among the top eight were Wong Lee Hong (Boys U15 – fifth), Iris Chieng Shiao Yu (Girls U17 – fifth), Nathalie Sim Shu Eng (Girls U19 – seventh), Eugenia David (Girls U19 – eighth), and Altamis Aqhar Sallam A (Boys U17 – eighth).
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