KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 10 — In a repeat of last year’s men’s final, Saints beat Earthshakers DC 5-4 to retain the National Dodgeball Championship title while Taylor’s Storm defeated Zephyrs 5-2 to win the women’s crown.
The Grand Finals at Sunway Extreme Park, saw eight male teams — 1 De Pointer, Saints, Earthshakers DC, Cyclone Break, Legency, Jokers, North Lion and Zephyrs and four female teams – 1 De Pointer, Taylor’s Storm, Zephyrs and North Lion compete in a round robin format, with the top two teams facing off in the final.
“This tournament is to promote the game and identify talent we can fast track into the national team,” said Malaysian Association of Dodgeball founder Yeo Wai Tat.
“We identified 30 players from last year’s tournament and they have undergone fitness assessments at National Sports Institute, centralised training at Im4U Sentral, strength and conditioning programs as well as weekly physical and technical training with our coaching committee.
“This was preparation for the World Championships in Melbourne from Oct 19 to 24,” said Wai Tat.
Malaysia are ranked second in the world behind the United States after losing 7-5 in the finals at last year’s World Championships in Las Vegas, while the women were third.
“Our opponents fear us,” declared men’s national team captain Robert Ng.
“We have had almost a year of intense training and we hope to win the gold medal,” added the 26-year-old.
National women’s team captain Janel Chong — who plays for Zephyrs — was disappointed with yesterday’s lossbut said: she hopes to make up for it in Melbourne.
“Were not favourites but we are going there to win,” remarked Janel.
Adding a bit of glamour to the event were Muqharabbin Mokhtarrudin, commonly known as Qobin — who was the youngest person to climb Everest in 2004 when he was 22 — and 209 Miss World Malaysia Thanuja Ananthan.
“I played poison-ball when I was young and when Im4U aske me, I couldn’t refuse. I’m always up for new things. It’s been a real treat,” said Thanuja.
Qobin felt seeing all races participating in an up and coming sport bodes well for the future.
“It is great to see Malaysian embracing new sports. Seeing the different races come together to play dodgeball warms my heart,” said Qobin.
“Hopefully, they push on from here and perhaps iget into the SEA Games in future,” he added.
