Tenom players and team officials.
KOTA KINABALU: Tenom were crowned upper interior zone champions of the re-scheduled Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin (BMR) Cup tournament over the weekend.
Played at the Tambunan Sports Complex, Tenom went unbeaten in the three-day tournament that also featured Nabawan, who were earlier reported to have pulled out of the competition.
Other teams are Keningau and the upper interior zone level competition hosts Tambunan.
Tenom, however, emerged victorious with Nabawan missing out on the title only by goals difference.
Tenom and Nabawan, who were also unbeaten in the competition, collected seven points each from three matches.
Tenom opened their campaign with a 2-1 win over Keningau while Nabawan came out top in a seven-goal thriller against Tambunan 4-3.
In the second game, Tenom edged Tambunan 2-0 and Nabawan claimed a narrow 1-0 win over Keningau.
With two wins each, Tenom and Nabawan faced off in the third and final group match in a winners-take-it-all match.
The game ended 1-1 and it proved enough to secure Tenom the title based on the team superior goals difference.
“Tenom scored five goals and conceded two while Nabawan bagged six goals scored and conceded four goals.
“With that, Tenom have been crowned the upper interior zone champions,” said Sabah FA (Safa) Local Competitions Committee chairman Azman Mastar on Monday.
The last group match between Keningau and Tambunan originally scheduled for Sunday has been postponed to this weekend.
The tournament at zone level serves as a platform to select players or team to represent the zone to the Grand Final of the BMR Cup, which is an under-18 football competition.
“Hopefully the objective of organising the tournament will be achieved where among other objective is to identify new talents that can go on to represent the state in the future, which is in line with the vision of our president,” Azman said in referring to Safa acting president Datuk Seri Bung Moktar Radin.
Azman expressed his gratitude to all involved in the upper interior zone matches, including Nabawan for their determination despite having pulled out earlier.
With the conclusion of the upper interior zone matches, seven out of the eight zones have completed their competitions.
It is now left with the south east coast zone comprising of Tawau, Lahad Datu, Kunak, Semporna and Kalabakan due to the Movement Control Order (MCO) restrictions in some areas.
Once completed, the eight zones would compete in the Grand Final which is expected to take place after the Hari Raya celebration.
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