PETALING JAYA: Two years after falling short in the girls’ doubles final, Low Zi Yu finally got her gold by becoming the youngest world junior badminton champion in the event alongside Genevie Lim in Cairo on Saturday.
Zi Yu claimed the title at just 16 years and 57 days, bettering the previous mark held by China’s Jia Yifan, who was 16 years and 293 days old when she won the 2014 edition in Alor Setar with Chen Qingchen.
But for a moment, Zi Yu feared she would once again have to settle for silver after Japan’s Nijika Kamata-Shizuku Kashio dragged the final into a rubber game at the Cairo International Stadium on Saturday final.
The pressure was even greater after Zi Yu had earlier suffered disappointment in the mixed doubles, where she and top-seeded partner Ahmad Redzuan Zulwaqqarizal were knocked out in the quarter-finals.
This time, however, Zi Yu and Genevie held their nerve when it mattered most, coming through 15-7, 9-15, 15-12 to secure the gold medal.
The victory also made them the first Malaysian pair to win the girls’ doubles title at the World Junior Championships.
“Very happy. This time I can get a gold medal. I was very nervous. I thought I was going to take a third silver medal at the world junior meet. I was very lucky to get a gold medal.
“I felt very nervous because I didn’t want to get another silver. Then we ended up in the rubber game. That was the most crucial part,” said Zi Yu in a post-match interview with BWF.
For Genevie, the title was even more remarkable considering she was only paired with Zi Yu this year, starting at the Asian Junior Championships in Yatsushiro, Japan.
The victory also helped to make up for the disappointment of last week, when Malaysia had to settle for silver in the mixed team event.
“I felt very nervous because I didn’t want to get another silver. Then we ended up in the rubber game. That was the most crucial part,” said Genevie.
Two years ago in Nanchang, Zi Yu, then only 14, had to settle for silver after she and Dania Sofea Zaidi lost to Japan’s Ririna Hiramoto-Aya Tamaki in the final.
She suffered the same disappointment again last year in Guwahati, this time alongside Noraqilah Maisarah Ramdan, when they went down to China’s Tan Kexuan-Wei Yueyue in the final.
