WOMEN: Korea outlast defiant Malaysia, Vietnam cruise past Japan
There were two women's matches on the opening day of the ISTAF Super Series South Sumatra Indonesia 2012, with victories as expected for Vietnam and Korea.
VIETNAM 15-6, 15-7. 15-9 JAPAN
KOREA 15-9, 15-7, 11-15, 15-12 MALAYSIA
The finalists at the last to ISTAF tournaments – Vietnam at the World Cup in Kuala Lumpur and Korea at the Super Series in Bangkok – are expected to progress to the semis here, but Korea were made to fight all the way. Vietnam got the women's tournament under way, defeating Japan fairly comfortably. They rotated their tekongs, with Yen seemingly the senior server now ahead of Lai Thi, and her windmill services were too much for a Japan team – which had very few familiar faces in it – to cope with.
The second match was the tie of the day however, with Malaysia powering back from a two-set deficit and all but taking it to a decider. Korea looked to be cruising and decided to rest Kim Dong Hee and Kim I Seul, only for Malaysia to get the bit between their teeth in the third set. Their manager replaced Fairuz, who had been serving well but looked to be tiring, with Zubaidah at tekong, and this seemed to spark striker Rahila into life. She was a veritable points machine, blocking and spiking anything that came her way and helping her team to a 15-12 third set and 11-8 lead in the fourth. Korea then brought their big guns back and it was just enough to see them home.
Korea play Thailand on Friday in what will likely decide the winner of Group A, with the latter also facing Malaysia. Indonesia meanwhile will play their entire Group B campaign on Friday, facing Vietnam and Japan, with a place in the semis now within their reach.
MEN Group A: Indonesia into the semis
Hosts Indonesia survived an early scare to record two wins on Thursday and become the first team to book a semi-final slot in the process.
INDONESIA 15-9, 15-5, 13-15, 15-6 JAPAN
MALAYSIA 15-4, 15-1, 15-5 USA
INDONESIA 15-5, 15-3, 15-2 USA
They took the first two sets only to have Japan change tekongs and turn the tide. Kobayashi and Akaishi split the duties between them and it was enough to throw Indonesia off their stride, but with a raucous capacity crowd behind them, the hosts came back to seal victory in four.
They then returned later in the day to see off USA, who were sporting two new players – and what is more, they were both genuinely home-grown as opposed to "imports". Jeremy Merkin shows real potential as a striker while Jack Harris is solid in defence but needs to improve his tekong skills – something that the irrepressible captain Tony Ontam will no doubt help him with over the coming months.
USA suffered another defeat earlier in the day to Malaysia, who will be hopeful of a semi-final berth. To achieve that however, they will need to defeat Japan and/or Indonesia – tall orders both, with the former making the semis in Bangkok last year and the latter second in the ISTAF Super Series rankings.
MEN Group B: Thailand cruise
Sepaktakraw is a game played by two teams over best-of-five sets, and at the end of the day Thailand always wins. That seems to be the case at the moment with the Thais predictably sitting atop Group B on Thursday night, having rotated their squad but still yet to so much as drop a set in ISTAF competition.
KOREA 15-10, 15-12, 15-9 BRUNEI DARUSSALAM
THAILAND 15-7, 15-5, 15-7 SINGAPORE
SINGAPORE 15-3, 15-4, 15-11 CHINESE TAIPEI
THAILAND 15-2, 15-8, 15-9 BRUNEI DARUSSALAM
In the morning, Thailand defeated Singapore with Pornchai Kaokaew spiking and Wirawut Na Nongkhai as tekong. Then in the afternoon they repeated the feat against a brave yet overmatched Brunei Darussalam side with Anuwat Chaichana as striker and Siriwat Sakha firing over service winners from the tekong circle. This side is so good that Kriangkrai currently cannot get in the squad… The one constant though is captain Pattarapong Yupadee, who defence and setting is beyond compare.
In the first match of the day, Korea took out an option on second place in the group with a straight-sets win over Brunei, but they will have to get past Singapore to do so. The team from the city state recorded a comfortable win over Chinese Taipei who were making their return to ISTAF competition after last year's World Cup in Kuala Lumpur, and could well be a good bet to make the semi-finals.
by New Sepaktakraw
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