Meng Yean-Mei Kuan end Olympics campaign with one win

Malaysia's Chow Mei Kuan (back) and Lee Meng Yean in action against England's Chloe Birch-Lauren Smith during their women's doubles group match in Tokyo, Japan. - AP

PETALING JAYA: National women doubles pair Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean bowed out from their first Olympic Games with dignity.

The world No. 11 gave a rousing display to beat England's Lauren Smith-Chloe Birch 21-19, 21-16 at the Musashino Forest Sports Plaza on Tuesday to finish third in Group A.

The match was a dead rubber as both pairs had lost their first two matches against group favourites Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota of Japan and Greysia Polii-Apriyani Rahayu of Indonesia.

Mei Kuan-Meng Yean had headed to Tokyo hoping to emulate former teammates Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei in reaching the quarter-finals in Rio 2016 but failed to advance beyond the group stage.

The duo, who train under head coach Chan Chong Ming, had put themselves in a difficult situation right from the start when they lost 14-21, 17-21 to Greysia-Apriyani in the opening match.

They did better to steal one game from world No. 1 Fukushima-Hirota before losing 21-17, 15-21, 8-21 but the defeat buried their hopes of advancing to the next stage.