PETALING JAYA: The unusual schedule for the individual badminton competition at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games appeared to have taken a toll on several Malaysian players yesterday.
And it saw mixed doubles pairs Chen Tang Jie-Cheng Su Yin and Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie sent packing in the early rounds at the Ichinomiya City Municipal Gymnasium in Aichi.
The pairs had to play twice on the same day with less than four hours between their matches.
Tang Jie-Su Yin started well by beating Bangladesh’s Al Amin Jumar-Urmi Akter 21-14, 21-9 in the first round
However, they were back on court later in the afternoon to face South Korea’s Kim Jae-hyun-Jang Ha-jeong for a place in the quarter-finals and were pushed all the way before losing 16-21, 22-20, 19-21.
It was a similar story for Soon Huat-Shevon, who comfortably disposed of Taiwan’s Yang Po-hsuan-Hu Ling-fang 21-14, 21-11 in their opening match.
The husband-and-wife pair then returned to court less than four hours later against India’s Dhruv Kapila-Tanisha Crasto but saw their campaign end with a narrow 20-22, 22-24 defeat.
The loss was particularly disappointing for Soon Huat-Shevon as this is set to be their final appearance at the Asian Games.
Panitchapon said he had suffered the injury during the team event and had only two to three days to recover before the start of the individual competition.
"So I decided to withdraw to avoid making the injury worse. I would like to apologise to everyone who has been waiting to cheer for and support me," Panitchapon said in a statement on social media.
Justin will face Bangladesh’s Gourab Singha in the second round for a place in the quarter-finals.
There was no such luck for women’s singles shuttler K. Letshanaa, whose campaign ended in the first round after a 13-21, 13-21 defeat to Taiwan’s Chiu Pin-chian.
