Amelia-Fie Cho: This gold is for all of you

Malaysia's Amelia Alicia Anscelly (right) and Soong Fie Cho with their doubles gold medal won at the Singapore SEA Games on Tuesday. - FAIHAN GHANI/ The STAR

SINGAPORE: This is for you Sabah!

Malaysian badminton players Amelia Alicia Anscelly and Soong Fie Cho were in tears after upsetting top ranked team-mates Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei for the gold medal in the women’s doubles final.

The World No. 26 pair defeated world No. 11 Vivian-Khe Wei 21-18, 21-13 at the Singapore Indoor Stadium on Tuesday and immediately dedicated the gold to their home state of Sabah, which was recently struck by a 5.9-magnitude earthquake.

This is the second time that Amelia-Fie Cho have beaten Vivian-Khe Wei in a final, having last won the Indian Open GP Gold in January.

“To my parents, my boyfriend and all our friends back in Sabah who are supporting us, this gold is for all of you,” said Amelia.

“Sabah is a beautiful place where everyone cares for each other and I believe our people back home will bounce back stronger.”

Speaking about their biggest achievement to date, Amelia hopes that the win will help them shed their tags as the second best pair in Malaysia.

“It hasn’t been an easy journey for us because we only joined the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) set-up four years ago ... we were lacking in the basics,” said Amelia.

“We had to train very hard to catch up ... and even then, a win like this was not easy. Probably, it was because they were the defending champions and had more pressure than us. But this win proves that we can compete against stronger opponents.

“Our target now is to get into the top 10 ranking. The gold in the Singapore SEA Games is a huge boost to our efforts to achieve greater goals.”

*pic by FAIHAN GHANI/ The STAR

*video by KNG ZHENG GUAN