Kota Kinabalu: Kota Kinabalu City Badminton Association (KKCBA) hoped the success of woman singles shuttler Arena Samin at the Crowne Plaza Northern Marianas Open held in Saipan, Northern Marianas last weekend will motivate the junior players.
The 21-year-old made the podium with her joint third place finish with Akari Kurihara from Japan after losing to another Japanese Sakura Masuki 7-21, 17-21 in the women’s singles semi-final.
She had earlier beaten Sorano Yoshikawa from Japan in a tough 21-19, 15-21, 23-21 quarter-final match to progress to the last four.
Arena, who travelled to the tournament with her brother Demond Anthony and was sponsored by their family, also competed in the mixed doubles event with Demond, but they were stopped in the last 16 by Japanese pair Kota Ogawa/Misaki Kurashima 18-21, 10-21.
KKCBA deputy president Ronald Cooke said the association was impressed with her achievement and hoped she will continue to excel further.
“We are hoping with her encouraging performance, more junior players will be motivated to follow her foot steps, and there will be more willing sponsors coming forward to help her pursue badminton professionally at international level,” he said.
He added that the two shuttlers are the product of a joint development programme between KKCBA, Acebrio Badminton Club and Samin Badminton Club.
The tournament was only her third overseas outing this year starting with the Li Ning Sri Lanka International Challenge in early February which she was unable to make the main draw followed by the Li Ning Sri Lanka International Series held a week later where she managed to reach the quarter-final stage.
She is currently competing in the Dove Saipan International 2024 which started on Tuesday and she hopes to accumulate more points to improve her current 449 ranking in order to compete in higher grade tournaments.
The siblings also expressed their gratitude to their family, KKCBA, Samin Badminton Club, AceBrio Badminton Club, Maxbolt, Leeka and Sabah Badminton Association for the support.
