March 25th TheStar VETERAN Wong Choong Hann was the toast of the Malaysian badminton team yesterday, qualifying for two finals and ensuring that the gold and silver medals in both the men's competition will come home to Kuala Lumpur. In the men's doubles, Choong Hann teamed up with Choong Tan Fook to see off second seed Anthony Clark-Robert Blair of England 21-12, 21-11 in the semi-finals. The pair will meet teammates and top seeds Chan Chong Ming-Koo Kien Keat in the final at the Melbourne Exhibition Centre tomorrow. In the men's singles, Choong Hann was held by the throat by India's Chetan Anand in the second game but survived the scare to beat the Indian 21-11, 17-21, 21-13 in the semi-finals. He will now take on teammate and hot favourite Lee Chong Wei in another all-Malaysian final tomorrow. With top women singles Wong Mew Choo and top women's pair of Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty also reaching the finals yesterday, Malaysia can dream of four gold medals from badminton on Sunday. A jaded Choong Hann, who played a total of four gruelling matches yesterday, was thrilled with his double final appearance. “Reaching the men's doubles final is more special for me. This was my target from the start,” said the KL '98 Games singles gold medallist. In the quarter-finals earlier, he had defeated Kendrick Lee of Singapore 21-17, 22-20 in the men's singles and knocked out New Zealand's Gordon Shirley-John Moody 21-11, 21-9 in the men's doubles. “The pressure is now off the men's singles and doubles. We already have the gold medals in our hands. I will be the underdog in both the events. I will just it give my best,” said Choong Hann. He has become the first Malaysian to win three medals in Games badminton competition. He won the mixed team gold last week. While the men's gold medals are in the bag, the women have vowed to add two more. Mew Choo defeated Scotland's Susan Hughes 21-7, 21-18 in the semi-finals to set-up a mouth-watering match against Tracey Hallam of England. Just last week, Mew Choo had beaten the Englishwoman in a thrilling match during the mixed team event and she can brace herself for a backlash. She will be out to become the first Malaysian in 28 years to win the singles gold after Sylvia Ng's at the 1978 Edmonton Games. The women's doubles final will be between Pei Tty-Eei Hui and Singapore's Jiang Yanmei-Li Yujia. The Singapore pair put up a superb show yesterday to upset second seed Gail Emms-Donna Kellogg of England 21-8, 21-4. In the mixed doubles, Kien Keat-Pei Tty failed to make history for Malaysia. They crashed out 21-15, 14-21, 15-21 to New Zealand's Gordon Shirley-Sara Runesten Petersen in the semi-finals yesterday. They will now play off for bronze against Singapore's Hendra Saputra-Li Yujia today.
YAY ALL MALAYSIAN FINAL FOR MEN SINGS AND DOUBS =) LCW WCH Boleh!! Malaysian coach can have a rest...sigh of relief.... Hey.... Who will the Malay Coach give tips to?? Will he just sit at the side and let them play against each other??
Ahaha... Yea, good question. I'm still pondering about that. But it's not the "Malay Coach". It's more like the MalaySIAN coach. Malay's reffers to a specific race in Malaysia. Just a note Anyway, the head coach is a Chinese. Of course Misbun Sidek is one of the coaches who is a Malay. Cheers
Thanks for letting me know...Maybe Im a tad careless with my choice of words... I think that the MalaySIAN coach will just sit back and relax....I think WCH and LCW know each other's games pretty well already... so its just another inter-Malaysia battle! =)
Yeah!!!!! the Malaysian team is doing very well this time, Malaysia VS Malaysia in the men's singles and doubles final, and our Mew choo and women doubles managed to get into the finals as well...wah!! I'm really excited! Honestly, I hope WCH will win in both games because he is a veteran already and all the other players are still youngsters in badminton so...mmm...I support him more than the others !! Well, may be not so easy for him especially he is in both the singles and doubles!! He must be exhausted after playing with LCW, woh ..he'll be extremely exhausted in the end of the day, just wondering whether he'll attend the closing ceremony!!!
is it on supersports on astro or not? they only showed the MS and WS for todays bronze medals, and after that decided to show netball which the malaysians werente even playing in, rather than show the mixed doubles with with KKK/WPT were playing in... idiots
Congratulations, Malaysia! Well done for the brilliant performance. This will be a great morale boost for the upcoming TC. Go go!
