THE inaugural Penang Factories Badminton Team Master Open Championships 2018 at the MBPP Relau Sports Complex got off to a great start with over 300 players from 23 teams taking part.
State Youth and Sports Committee chairman Soon Lip Chee praised the participating teams and organisers for their interest to stay active and healthy through sports.
“I hope this tournament can be organised again next year. We not only focus on youths but also on working people who may be ex-school, ex-university or ex-state players,” Soon said in his speech at the badminton hall yesterday.
“I would like them to continue building the momentum. As some of them are parents, they play an important role in influencing their children to take up badminton. The tournament also allows the participants to build good relationships and become best friends.”
Also present were BCN Precision Technology managing director Poh Chun Ching and organising chairman Gary Poh.
Through the efforts of Gary and his committee members, the tournament from Nov 13 to 18 attracted 16 men’s teams and seven women’s teams. BCN Precision Technology Sdn Bhd is the main sponsor of the six-day tournament.
The teams and their groupings are: Men – Group A: Dell, Agilent, SAM, PixArt Imaging; Group B: Intel, Motorola Solutions, Cypress, Osram; Group C: Plexus, B. Braun, Western Digital, Robert Bosch; Group D: Broadcom, Jabil, Lumileds, Keysight Technologies; Women: Group W – Intel, Motorola, Agilent, Jabil; Group Y – B. Braun, Robert Bosch, Western Digital.
To stir up more interest, Soon said he could help arrange friendly ties with Singapore factory clubs for the top four or five teams in the tournament next year.
“I was in Singapore last month to visit the Singapore ActiveSG. I can ask them to help in this exchange if they have factory badminton clubs,” Soon said.
In the 80s and 90s, many factories keenly competed in what was then known as the Penang Free Industrial Zone (Penang FIZ) championships like football, bowling and badminton. The last Penang FIZ badminton tournament was held in 2016.
Meanwhile, in the recent Penang Badminton Master Open Team Championships for the Padang Kota Cup 2018 that was declared open by Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow, Team Vangohh Eminent emerged as the Division One champions. Second place went to Team PGBC Mystery Village while Team CRC Taipex and Team Lucky Star were joint third.
In the Division Two category, Team Reach Kedah finished as champions with Team S35 as the second place winners. Team Kaymoqiu and Team Lambo were declared joint third.
Story by K.H. Ong
Pix by Law Suun Ting