After a trying day, the men’s singles shuttler Lee Zii Jia’s cool performance to get to the semi-finals cheered the Malaysian team competing in the Paris 2024 Olympics and helped dispel the negativity in the badminton camp.
The “great wall” of China prevented two doubles representatives from making it to the finals in a fiercely contested semi-final yesterday at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena, which marked the beginning of an agonising challenge on the seventh day of the Games.
The women’s doubles team Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah, who lost 12-21, 21-18, 15-21 in a fierce match that lasted more than 78 minutes, was forced to concede the supremacy of the world’s top doubles team, Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan from China, in the first action of the morning (afternoon in Malaysia).
They will try to create history today by facing Japan’s Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida in the bronze medal match after being the first Malaysian women’s doubles team to advance to the Olympic semifinals.
Similar circumstances also befell the men’s doubles team of Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik when they faced up against Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang, another top-ranked Chinese pair.
The 2022 world champions were forced to give up after a competitive battle that lasted for more than an hour, losing 19-21, 21-15, 17-21 in a thrilling three-set match.
Tomorrow, Aaron-Wooi Yik will take on the world-ranked doubles team of Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen from Denmark in an attempt to defend the bronze.
But when Zii Jia defeated Denmark’s Anders Antonsen in the quarterfinals, which began early this morning in Malaysia, he was able to lift the spirits of the home crowd once more.
The 2021 All England champion Zii Jia defeated the world number three player with relative calmness, 21-17, 21-15, and so earned a date with Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn, the 2023 global champion.
Earlier, Kunlavut shocked everyone by defeating China’s Shi Yu Qi, ranked #1 in the world, in straight sets, 21-12, 21-10.
Today, Malaysia will also be challenged in badminton and golf, with Gavin Green competing in the individual event and having advanced to the third round.
In the single-handed dinghy events, Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy of sailing and Nur Shazrin Mohamad Latiff of sailing are both still competing in the ILCA 7 men’s and women’s categories, respectively.
The sprinter Muhammad Azeem Mohd Fahmi of the nation will also be the centre of attention as he begins his campaign in the men’s 100-meter preliminary round at the Stade de France.
With the stadium just installing a purple Mondo track that is supposed to help athletes set faster records, it would be intriguing to see if the US-based sprinter can beat his current national record of 10.09 seconds.
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