Giving a good fight: Jin Wei Goh returning a shot to South Korea’s Kim Ga-eun during the Group H match. — Reuters
GOH Jin Wei was her usual expressionless self as she walked off the court. Minutes later, she was in tears.
The women’s singles shuttler had come within a whisker of beating South Korea’s world No. 17 Kim Ga-eun but a few errors cost her dearly, leading to a painful exit from the Paris OIympics.
The 24-year-old won the hearts of Malaysian fans after giving Ga-eun a run for her money before going down 17-21, 22-20, 21-23 in a pulsating 65 minute-battle in Group H at Adidas Arena in Port de la Chapelle yesterday.
Jin Wei refused to give up despite struggling with fatigue in an energy-sapping match and came back from 10-15 down to lead 20-18 in the third game.
The world No. 32 though could not take her opportunities and allowed the Korean to come back to snatch the win at the death.
The Malaysian independent player, however, has vowed to not give up on her career.
Instead, he will use her battling performance against the South Korean as motivation in future tournaments.
“I am sorry. I apologise to all Malaysian fans as I really had a chance to win but could not,” said the tearful Jin Wei.
“I feel very disappointed. My opponent was under more pressure but I was the one who ended up making mistakes.
“My game plan was to stay patient but I rushed my shots in the end. I don’t want to give any excuses. I need to accept this defeat and see where I went wrong.”
Despite the defeat, Jin Wei deserves praise for her fighting spirit against the odds.
The Penang lass underwent colectomy surgery in 2019 to treat a stomach ailment and has been struggling with the intensity of top-level badminton since returning to competition.
Still, she fought her way up the rankings to qualify for her first Olympics.
She then was handed another headache after her coach Nova Armada, who was instrumental in her Olympics qualification, could not accompany her to Paris due to a limited number of accreditation passes. Instead, she had national coaching director Rexy Mainaky and women’s doubles coach Hoon Thien How in her corner.
Not much had been expected of Jin Wei, the sole women’s singles representative for Malaysia in Paris, but she stood tall to give a spirited show against the experienced Ga-eun.
“I was happy when I qualified for the Olympics but I wanted to do better,” said Jin Wei.
“There’s still a lot of chances for me to play and lessons that I can learn from my first Olympic outing.
“I hope to learn from this defeat. I will keep going.”
She’s only 24 - so you can expect Jin Wei to come back smashing.
