Kota Kinabalu: Sandakan dominated the table tennis team events by successfully defending both the men’s and women’s titles at the 10th Sabah Games (Saga) on Friday at the Maksak Hall.
They won the first gold medal in the competition through the men’s team after they beat Kota Kinabalu 3-0 in the final.
Earlier in the semi-finals, they defeated Kudat 3-1 while Kota Kinabalu beat Papar also by 3-1 scoreline.
Their second gold was delivered by their women’s team after edging Tawau 3-2 in the final. Both finalists had fairly easy semi-final matches with Tawau brushing aside Beaufort and Tawau defeating Keningau 3-1.
The Sandakan women table tennis teams.
Meanwhile, Kota Belud created the first upset in the biennial games when they defeated defending champions Kota Kinabalu 2-0 in Group A of the men’s hockey event on Friday.
Kota Kinabalu team manager Dedi Saputra said fitness was the main issue for the unexpected loss.
“Many of the players in the team that won in Keningau are now working and some are pursuing studies at the universities so there was no enough training.
“Hopefully they can bounce back in the next game against Sandakan on December 17,” he said.
Sandakan also lost their opening match to Beaufort 1-3 in the other Group A match played in the morning.
However, there was no problem for previous women’s title winners Keningau in the opening round as they thrashed Penampang 12-0 in Group D on Thursday.
In Group C, Kudat drew 1-1 with Beaufort while Kota Kinabalu thrashed Sandakan 4-1.
A total of 16 teams are taking part in the hockey events and the finals will only be held on December 21.
Five more sports are set to begin today (Saturday) to follow hockey, table tennis and lawn bowls.
Football matches in group stages will be held at various venues in Kota Kinabalu, early rounds for pencak silat at Sri Putatan Hall, group stages for sepak takraw at Sri Sulaiman Multi Purpose Hall in Tuaran while schedules for karate and basketball are yet to be released.
* Follow us on Instagram and join our Telegram and/or WhatsApp channel(s) for the latest news you don't want to miss.
* Do you have access to the Daily Express e-paper and online exclusive news? Check out subscription plans available.
