Fierce battle: Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah returning in action against China’s Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning during the women’s doubles final match. — AP
SEPANG: Shuttlers Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah hope their historic silver in the World Championships will inspire other women athletes to chase their dreams.
Pearly-Thinaah captured Malaysia’s first ever women’s doubles medal in the world meet in Paris.
The world No. 2 pair impressively beat Japan’s Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida before going down fighting to China’s world No. 1 Liu Shengshu-Tan Ning in the final on Sunday.
Pearly-Thinaah hope their breakthrough will spur on women athletes in the country.
“I’m very happy and proud that we could bring women’s doubles to the eyes of the world,” said Pearly when met at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA) yesterday.
“There are no regrets. We really gave everything and worked hard for this medal.”
Thinaah said: “Winning this medal is also something big, and we really hope that it can open the eyes of many women athletes out there.
“They need to believe that as long as you work hard and enjoy the process of it, anything is possible.”
Pearly-Thinaah continue to prove themselves as one of the best women’s doubles pairs Malaysia have ever produced, if not the best.
The pair also created history by becoming the first Malaysians to reach the women’s doubles semi-finals in the Olympics in Paris last year.
Before that, Pearly-Thinaah were the first from the country to win the women’s doubles crown in the French Open in 2022.
This year, they were only the second Malaysian women’s pair to reach the top two in the world rankings after Chin Eei Hui-Wong Pei Tty, who went on to reach No. 1 in the world in 2009.
Pearly-Thinaah moved up the rankings after a fine year where they made it into five finals overall, clinching the Thailand Open title and finishing runners-up in the Japan Open, Indonesian Open and Indonesian Masters before finishing second in the world meet.
After narrowly missing out on the gold in Paris, the duo have vowed to learn from the defeat to Shengshu-Tan Ning and return stronger.
“Entering the tournament as second seeds, there were expectations on us,” said Thinaah.
Pearly said: “The journey is still long for me and Thinaah. We won’t stay here and we will fight again.”
