BAM: Mixed doubles pair not disappointing

KUALA LUMPUR: The first participation by the national badminton mixed doubles pair of Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying succeeded to put up a surprising performance for the national badminton fans.

Although they missed the first gold medal for Malaysia, Chan-Goh however added a silver medal to the national contingent in the mixed doubles final at the Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.

In an exciting match at the Pavilion 4 court, Riocentro, the national pair lost 14-21 and 12-21 to the Indonesian pair of Tontowi Ahmad-Liliyana Natsir.

Deputy president of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), Datuk Seri Norza Mohamad Zakaria when contacted by Bernama said although Chan-Goh failed to win the match, it was a meaningful achievement for the national mixed doubles pair.

"This is history because Malaysia had never had a mixed doubles pair that had succeeded to make it so far. This was the first time that we qualified for the Olympic," he said.

Norza, who is currently in Rio de Janeiro to witness the meaningful moment for national badminton, said the BAM was not disappointed by the loss but was in fact proud that the mixed doubles pair proved their determination in facing the Indonesian seeded pair.

He said that the BAM had expected right from the start that the final would favour the Indonesian pair because in terms of the world ranking, the opponents are placed third in the world.

"They are a favourite team, they also have a better ranking than our team, similarly, they also have experience in competing at the world level...and earlier Chan-Goh had also lost in the group stage. Nevertheless, I am proud of their achievement because they grabbed the silver medal for Malaysia.

"We certainly expected the mixed doubles to go far but we did not expect them to reach the final. Their achievement was most exciting and beyond expectation," he added.

Meanwhile, another final match will see the men's doubles pair of Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong facing the Chinese pair of Fu Haifeng-Zhang Nan while national singles champion who is also the world's number one player, Datuk Lee Chong Wei will face his traditional nemesis, Lin Dan also from China in the semifinals. - Bernama