Kota Kinabalu: The disappointing outing by Sabah shuttlers at the recent 100PLUS national Junior Circuit GP Finals held over the weekend clearly indicated that the standard of the sport in Sabah is in an alarming state.The tournament which was held at the SUKPA stadium in Kuantan, Pahang from June 12-16 saw all the players failing to even get past the group stages except for Tan Jinn Hwa from Sandakan who is based in Bukit Jalil Sports School, he managed to enter the final and ended up as runner-up in the boys Under-16 doubles with his partner Sim Guo Zheng from Melaka.
For years, the Sabah Badminton Association has refused to heed the advise of its former coach Abas Ali who often criticised their engagement of an incapable coach as well as failing to have a proper development plan and the results proved that he was spot on in his prediction that the State will eventually run out of talented players.
With SBA's annual general meeting soon coming up, incumbent Datuk Maijol Mahap was set to face a strong challenge to defend his president's post and the poor results would have definitely been one of the main issues raised by his opponents.
However, Maijol said on Monday that he would not be defending his post at SBA's annual general meeting scheduled on June 28.
The five-day competition saw four boys singles and two boys double pairs failing to get a single win in their group matches.
Mark Williams, Jonathan Jonioh and Soong Che Wei all lost in their two group matches against their respective opponents in the boys Under-12 singles category while Eddrall Atel also lost both his matches in the boys Under-14.
The doubles saw Demond Samin/Sixtus Simon in the boys Under-12 and the boys Under-18 pair of Brandon Firid/Joshua Lee losing all three matches played.
The other players from the State who also failed to make their mark were Sannia Richard and Tan Yun Ying (Girls U12 singles); Sannia/Tan and Asfarhani Jasneh/Macnella Michael (Girls U12 doubles); Goh Ting Yu (Boys U14 singles); Amir Yusof/Mohd Quzairie Adiman and Eddrall Atek/Ting Si Ren (Boys U14 doubles); Datu Mohd Shah Eizlan Sardik (Boys U16 singles); Grace Lee (Girls U16 singles); Smith/Steve Robert (Boys U16 doubles); Donnetta Moisol& Lydia Habirin (Girls U18 singles); Joanne Chai/Lydia Habiran and Donnetta Moisol/Ester Samin (Girls U18 doubles).
