PETALING JAYA: The shuttlers can be pleased with their outing in the mixed team event of the World Junior Championships.
Led by Eogene Ewe in the boys’ singles, Malaysia finished with a bronze after going down 0-3 to China in the semi-finals in Spokane, Washington, yesterday.
China take on Indonesia in the final.
There was no shame in losing to one of the tournament favourites, who boasted several medallists from the Asian Junior meet in Yogyakarta in July.
Mixed doubles pair Low Han Chen-Chan Wen Tse lost 11-21, 16-21 to Asian junior silver medal winners Zhang Jiahan-Liao Pinyi.
Eogene then had a tough task against reigning Asian junior champion Hu Zhean and went down 17-21, 14-21.
Siti Zulaikha Azmi (pic) gave everything against the bronze medallist from Yogyakarta Xu Wenjiang in her bid to save the tie but lost 17-21, 18-21 in the girls’ singles.
It was the team’s first defeat in the tournament.
They have now won Malaysia’s first medal in the world mixed team competition since 2017.
Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) acting development director Joanne Quay said it was an encouraging outing.
“We knew it was going to be a difficult challenge but the players gave it their all,” said Joanne.
Eogene and his teammates will now turn their focus to the individual events starting tomorrow and will be hoping for favourable draw today.
