V Shem-Wee Kiong a big letdown in semis defeat

Olympic silver medallists Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong have been a massive letdown in Gold Coast. - GLENN GUAN/The Star

GOLD COAST: Defending champions Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong fell to a shock defeat in the men's doubles semi-finals at the Commonwealth Games.

The 2016 Rio Olympic silver medalists blew a good start before losing 21-15, 16-21, 15-21 to Marcus Ellis-Chris Langridge of England.

They should win the bronze-medal playoff against Sri Lanka's Sachin Dias-Buwaneka Goonethilleka later in the day.

Ellis-Langridge will take on India's Satwik Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty for the gold medal today.

Wee Kiong was disappointed.

"We know the expectation was on us to deliver but they changed their tactics in second game and we could not follow," said Wee Kiong.

Said V Shem: "We tried to step up in the decider but the English pair played really good today and we could not stop them. It's disappointing."

Ellis said the Malaysians were under tremendous pressure to deliver.

"Badminton is really big in Malaysia and being the defending champions, they came with much expectations," said Ellis.

"We lost to them in the mixed team final but this time, we had nothing to lose and really gave all out to win."

But Vivian Hoo-Chow Mei Kuan made it a good day for Malaysia when they reached the women's doubles final after defeating India's Ashwini Ponnappa-Sikki N. Reddy 17-21, 21-15, 21-4 to set up a match against Lauren Smith-Sarah Walker.