Badminton-Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik win Malaysia’s first medals in Paris

PARIS: Malaysia’s Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik bagged bronze on Sunday (Aug 4) after winning 16-21 22-20 21-19 against Kim Astrup and Anders Rasmussen of Denmark in a match that lasted over an hour, destroying 34 shuttlecocks and was filled with hypnotic rallies.
The words ‘Malaysia boleh’ – ‘Malaysia can’ – rang out in the audience as Chia knelt on the court when he and Soh won their country’s first medal at the Paris Olympics. The country sent a delegation of 26 athletes across nine sports.
Malaysia has medalled in badminton at every Olympics except Sydney and Athens since it became a sport at the Games in 1992.
Earlier in the day, Rio gold medallist Carolina Marin of Spain’s Olympic run ended in heartbreaking fashion when she was forced to retire midway through her women’s singles semi-final against China’s He Bingjiao, with what appeared to be a serious knee injury.
Marin was leading 21-14 10-8 and seemed to be cruising to the gold medal match when she collapsed.
He, who on Saturday dethroned compatriot and Tokyo gold medallist Chen Yufei, advanced to the final on Monday.
In the other women’s semi-final, Indonesia’s Gregoria Tunjung took the first game 21-11 against top seed An Se-young, who was struggling with an injured knee. A rallied in the second game, however, beating her opponent 21-13 21-16 in the second and third games.
Chants of “Viktor” sounded around the arena long before Dane Viktor Axelsen, the defending champion, stepped out onto the court to play India’s Lakshya Sen.
Competing cheers from Sen’s supporters continued in between serves, but it was pin-drop silence during a neck-and-neck first game that ended 22-20 in Axelsen’s favour.
The tall Dane powered through the second game 21-14 to reach Monday’s final against Thailand’s Kunlavut Vitidsarn who outclassed Malaysia’s Lee Zii Jia 21-14 21-15.
Taiwan’s Lee Yang and Wang Chi-Lin retained their Olympic badminton men’s doubles title on Sunday, beating China’s Liang Weikeng and Wang Chang 21-17 18-21 21-19 at the Porte de La Chapelle arena in a gripping final.
The Taiwanese pair, who won gold in Tokyo and are childhood friends, fell to the floor screaming when they won an emotionally charged match at which spectators chanted “Taiwan”, although they competed as Chinese Taipei at the Olympics.
Lee threw his racket in the air as the pair received a standing ovation from the euphoric Taiwanese supporters.
“I think last time in Tokyo not a lot of people knew us, but this time people recognised us,” Lee said, adding that he kissed the court at the end of the match to say goodbye to the sport as he plans to retire.
“The past three years we didn’t play well and we heard some people say they didn’t want us to represent Chinese Taipei – I’m very happy our efforts were seen by everyone”.