JINHUA: National sepak takraw coach Ahmad Jais Baharun attributed his men’s loss to Thailand in today’s team regu final at the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games to them committing a series of simple mistakes.
He, however, said that the national players performed better in the final at the Jinhua Gymnasium Sports Centre, about 170km from Hangzhou City, compared to their group and semifinal matches.
But it was the simple mistakes his men made and the weak defensive play that separated them from the Thais.
“If you look at both our regus, the first possibility may be (due to) inexperience and, secondly, the Thais had more confidence compared to our players.
“Thailand (also) rarely made easy mistakes and that gave them the advantage, not to mention their ‘tekong’ attacked more consistently,” he said after the final.
He said the national players need to bounce back from the disappointment and work on their weaknesses as they go in search of gold in the men’s inter-regu event, which begins on Thursday.
Meanwhile, national “killer” Azlan Alias apologised to Malaysian sepak takraw fans for their loss and vowed to bounce back in the coming events.
“We know Thailand are the best team and they have targeted the gold medal in the team event. We will do our best in the other event,” he said.
In today’s final, the national squad failed in their bid to end Thailand’s 25-year dominance in the men’s team event after going down tamely 2-0 in the final, which saw the Thais bagging the gold for the seventh consecutive time since the 1998 edition in Bangkok.
Malaysia, on the other hand, had to play the bridesmaid’s role once again to settle for the silver, which they also won in the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang edition.
