A Table Tennis Tournament among Islamabad ASEAN members was held at the Indonesian Embassy Budaya Nusantara Hall on 29 Dec 2012. The tournament was organized by the Malaysian High Commission and the participating ASEAN members were notably Brunei, Indonesia, Myanmar, Thailand, Vietnam, and Malaysia. Initially, Philippines was supposed to participate in the tournament, unfortunately due to their inability to produce the players, in place was a team comprising of ASEAN team.
The event begins at 9.00 am with the singing of ASEAN song. The Opening Ceremony was officiated by the Malaysian Ambassador, His Excellency Dr. Hasrul Sani Mujtabar. Also present were His Excellency San Myint Oo, Ambassador of the Republic of The Union of Myanmar and His Excellency Ngunyen Viet Hung, Ambassador of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam. While Brunei, Indonesia, Thailand and Philippines was represented by their Charge d’ Affairs respectively.
In his opening remarks during the opening ceremony, Ambassador Dr. Hasrul Sani express his wishes that the interaction and fostering the true spirit of ASEAN can be indulged by means of such events and to relish the idea of ASEAN community as quoted in the ASEAN charter. The Ambassador also thanked the Indonesia Embassy for providing the venue of the events. On the same note, Ambassador Dr. Hasrul Sani conveys his appreciation to all ladies who contribute and assist in preparing the dishes of the day.
The event was also attended by family members of the ASEAN Islamabad based who gave support and cheered their team. There were also variation of food were served by each ASEAN members on “Pot Luck” basis which were very sumptuous.
The teams were divided into two groups. Group A were Brunei, Myanmar, ASEAN and Indonesia while Group B were Malaysia, Vietnam and Thailand. In the preliminary round Indonesia emerged champion in Group A while Brunei was the runner up. Malaysia dominated Group B by thrashing both Thailand and Vietnam 5-0 respectively. In the first semifinal, Indonesia beat Vietnam 4-1, while Malaysia outclassed Brunei 4-1. And in the finals Malaysia thrashed the mighty Indonesian 4-1, with the winning points come from Ambassador Dr Hasrul Sani and Col Azhar in the singles event who won convincingly in two straight games. The mixed doubles of Mr. Shahbuddin and Mrs. Shahira and the men doubles combination of Mr. Rofi and Mr. Aiyub. Unexpectedly, the Malaysian ladies singles Mrs. Adewiyah could not match her opponent from Indonesia, Mrs. Lani and was shown the exit in two straight games.
The tournament was concluded after the prize giving ceremony at 3.00 pm. Myanmar will be hosting the next event of the ASEAN Friendship Tournament in which, the type of game will be decided upon at a later date.
