Malaysia’s dream for Olympic gold in badminton has to wait longer.

The on-going Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games is at its halfway mark now and there is only a week left before the games conclude with a closing ceremony on 8th August 2021. As of today, Malaysia still not able to win any medal but I do have huge appreciation for the athletes who have tried their best and many Malaysians have showered them with plenty of words of encouragement through social media too despite losing.

It’s hard to compete at the Olympics because you are competing with the best of the best from across the world. One of the sports that Malaysia has better hope in securing medals (even gold medal) is badminton but luck is not on our side again. Our men single favourite, Lee Zii Jia couldn’t get past top 16 as he is defeated by the reigning Olympic champion, Chen Long (who defeated Lee Chong Wei in the final of Rio 2016 games). Our men doubles pair has the closest path to gold but is foiled with a defeat to Indonesian pair in the semi-final yesterday. Our mixed double (silver medalist at Rio 2016), women double and women single players ended their runs at early group stages.

Yes, they have done their best but I still feel they lack skills and mental preparation when compared to their opponents. It appears to me somehow that there are a lot of distractions to their training and preparation, and they derive partly(if not mostly) from themselves (own disciplines). I felt they don’t work hard enough. Yes, we console them and told the world we will be back again in 4 years. But how many times we have said that and yet every time we are still at the losing end.

Our dream for gold in badminton is crashed again. Consolation is that we only have to wait 3 years (not usual 4) to the next Olympics (Paris 2024). Not only they have to place attention to Lee Zii Jia; they need to also quickly discover and train more elite players across all fields and all sports. We have won multiple silver and bronze medals at Rio 2016, and it looks like there is a possibility that we are ending Tokyo 2020 games with zero medal.

No good news for Malaysia which is very much desired now due to all the bad things happening in the country now (record breaking daily Covid-19 cases recently plus the never-ending lockdown and the present political instability thanks to the failed government and a Prime Minister who has the ‘thickest face’ of all and will never step down).

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Congratz to Lee Zii Jia on winning 2021 All England Open!

Since yesterday’s evening, my Facebook home page is flooded with news and posts congratulating Lee Zii Jia on winning the 2021 All England Open. All England Open is considered one of the most prestigious annual badminton championships and the last time a Malaysian winning in the tournament is none other than Lee Chong Wei back in 2017 before his retirement.

On last night, I do knew earlier than Zii Jia succeeded on getting into the final (he is the last Malaysian standing) but I couldn’t find any online platform to watch the match live. By the time it is almost midnight, we were all greeted with news of him winning the championship. He defeated Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen (30-29, 20-22, 21-9). Looking at the score, it must be a very tight and intense match in the first two games.

Today I managed to saw the highlight of the match from YouTube and his performance was really good. He appeared to be not nervous although the score was neck to neck in the first two matches. That is good. Getting nervous can really affect one’s performance on court. His solid game throughout the tournament allowed him to win over Kento Momota (current world’s no.1) in quarterfinal and over Viktor Axelsen (current world’s no.2) in the final yesterday.

He is only 23 years old this year. Ahhaa…he is still young and has many years ahead. Hopefully he can maintain or even further improve on his form and then we will see the next successor of Lee Chong Wei in representing Malaysia to win more badminton championships and even the very first elusive Olympic gold medal in the near future. However, his performance over the years was actually not consistent (sometimes good, sometimes bad). Hopefully he will just excel from this day onward. I have not been watching badminton tournaments for a couple of years already ever since Chong Wei retired because literally there is no one else from Malaysia’s badminton team that can truly deliver on international stage.

Now, Lee Zii Jia gave us back some hope. But I think he should not be too proud over this recent achievement and should instead push himself further to be the undefeatable. Tokyo 2020 Olympics is just around the corner (postponed due to the pandemic and is now scheduled to be held from July to August this year). Hope he can do well there!

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

Thank you, Lee Chong Wei!

Lee Chong Wei; a name that no Malaysians will not know and a name that has made a huge impact to the badminton world for over 19 years. A three-time Olympic silver medalist, Datuk Lee Chong Wei is truly a badminton legend and an inspiring Malaysian hero!

After diagnosed with nose cancer since last year, he has no choice but to stop his badminton career to focus on the cancer treatment at Taiwan ever since. The news shocked the whole Malaysia and we pray nothing but the best of health for this man. After confirmation of his recovery, he returned to the court but has been advised of not to undergo anymore intense training to avoid the relapse of cancer. Today, he decided to retire officially and we wish him all the best!

His achievement is nothing short of breathtaking. Although he has failed in three past attempts to win Malaysia’s first ever Olympic gold medal, but he never gives up. Winning 3 Olympic silver medals in a row, he is the most successful Olympian in Malaysian history. Although always losing in several crucial final matches (I always find that luck is always not on his side), but he is the one that unite all Malaysians through sport. People of all races gather together at mamak stall in the evening to catch his action live on huge television. Crowd cheering when he win points or hearing your neighbours scream when he won are some of the memories I had in the past (I’m sure you experienced those time too). Only Lee Chong Wei has the ability to do that.

He do wish to compete in next year’s Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games (will be his fourth attempt) but health shall comes first nevertheless. It’s okay, Chong Wei! You have tried your best and you have already made Malaysians proud! You have done enough and it’s best for you now to spend more quality time with your family and friends.

His achievement is not just limited to the Olympics. He has won a total of 69 badminton titles including a record-breaking 12 wins at the Malaysian Open. He is also a three-time Commonwealth Games gold medalist, and a four-time All England champion. He is also the king of BWF (Badminton World Federation) World Superseries with 47 titles. He held on to the position as world no.1 men single player for 6 years consecutively (from 2008 to 2013). Impressive, isn’t it? His career is so amazing that it has even been turned into an autobiography (book titled ‘Dare to be a Champion’) and a 2018 movie with his name as the movie’s title.

Thank you, Datuk Lee Chong Wei for all the contribution, inspiration and great memories you have given to us. Your superb plays on the badminton court in the past will be missed! It’s time now for the youngsters to step up the game to be back at the world stage in badminton.

(Images in this post are from various online sources)

 

Gold Coast 2018 ended with Malaysia still couldn’t break into top 10 in final medal tally.

The 21st Commonwealth Games, Gold Coast 2018 concluded today after 11 days of competition involving athletes from 71 participating countries and territories. I watched the highlight of the closing ceremony and it was a very underwhelming way to brought the successful games to an end. Although as expected, there is no particularly striking moment in the closing ceremony due to the relevant budget cut to hosting sporting events recently (hence inevitable decrease in scale and quality of ceremonies…and there is even no allocation for grand performance), but the show felt like the organizer wanted to just end it once and for all. It’s like a show made for no one to care for with lack of star power, poor fireworks, etc. By the way, the next edition of the games will be held on Birmingham, England in 2022 (4 years from now).

In Gold Coast 2018, the host nation, Australia topped the final medal tally as expected (due to it being a strong powerhouse in sports and also having home advantage) with 80 gold medals, 59 silver medals and 59 bronze medals (total of 198 medals). It is a huge win to Australia as England which came in second place only has 45 gold medals, 45 silver medals and 46 bronze medals (total of 136 medals). India is in third place finish with 26 gold medals, 20 silver medals and 20 bronze medals (total of 66 medals). Canada is in fourth place while New Zealand is in fifth.

Where is Malaysia? Malaysia is at 12th place with 7 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 12 bronze medals (total of 24 medals). This is a fairly good result for Malaysia as the country usually delivered around this figure in every Commonwealth Games. We have also achieved our target set earlier aiming for 6 gold medals. Well, I think the country set a pretty low target. We should at least aim for 10 gold medals. The country also failed to break into top 10 countries in the final medal tally. What’s the point of winning 145 gold medals in the 2017 SEA Games in KL but not doing well in larger-scale sporting event like the Olympics, Asian Games, or even this Commonwealth Games? Anyway, I do believe our athletes have already tried their best and I wish congratulation to the Malaysian medalists. The point is that our sporting performance still has a long way to go.

Malaysia started off really well in this games by clinching two gold medals in the first two days of the games from weightlifting events. However, we suffered a drought in multiple days after that as the country under-performed in other events like cycling, swimming, diving, squash and also badminton of which I would like to discuss here. It’s still a good news that we managed to win 2 gold medals in badminton but I’m actually expecting 5. Lee Chong Wei rise to the occasion in men single after losing to the same Indian player in the mixed team event while Vivian Hoo and Chow Mei Kuan shown to us that they are unbeatable this time in women doubles.

Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying only managed to secure a bronze in mixed double to my disappointment. Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong also only managed to get a bronze in men doubles to my disbelief. We also lost to India in the final of team event surprisingly. I have to admit that India do improve a lot in this particular sport but I’m still strong to my opinion that we are a level above them. This result shows that we have been declining in badminton. If we managed to get additional 3 gold medals, we can actually reach the 10-gold milestone. Last time, we are the only country that can give a good fight to Indonesia and China in badminton. Then, South Korea overpowered us. Next, Japan also went over us. Soon, India, England or even Thailand will deliver better than us in this sport too. We are on the downhill especially when now, we still couldn’t able to find talent to take over Lee Chong Wei and other aging athletes in badminton.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Malaysia has its best ever performance in Rio 2016 even before the games ends this weekend

I have just watched the live streaming for the semi-final match between Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia and Lin Dan of China in badminton’s men single. Chong Wei lost the first game but fought back to win the second game brilliantly. His first game is full of many careless mistakes but things turned the other way round in second game. Finally, in the third and deciding game, their result was neck to neck and it made me so nervous and worried. When Chong Wei hits 20-mark while Lin Dan was lagging behind a few points, I already started to celebrate.

However, Lin Dan fought back to win few points and leveled the score to 20-20. I was back to the state of extreme nervous again. Fortunately, Chong Wei impressed by winning the last two crucial points to win the match. A big congratulation to him for defeating Lin Dan this time. Lin Dan had defeated Chong Wei in the final in both Beijing 2008 and London 2012 Olympic Games. Now, it’s Chong Wei’s turn to take him out, but this time it’s not the final match yet. However, I’m already very happy that he is now only one step away from the coveted Olympic gold medal of which no Malaysian has win before in the history of the Olympics.

(Image above from The Straits Times)

Even if he lost in the final (definitely hope not), he would still be one of the greatest badminton players in the world. Who can be the Olympic silver medalist for three consecutive times? No one accomplish that before. But all our wish is now on him winning the gold medal that would be a perfect gift to end his Olympic run (he won’t be playing for the next Olympics anymore) and also a perfect gift to the whole country, Malaysia. But the country didn’t only rely on him this time, as our men doubles pair, Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Keong will be playing in the final later tonight. This is our another chance to win the gold medal. All our prayers and well wishes for them!

On the other hand, in the mixed double final that took place two days ago, Malaysian pair Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying lost, but had already made us proud. They never expected to reach the final in the first place but they did. The Indonesian pair they dealt with in the final was just too strong. Our Malaysian pair was still impressive and won a silver for Malaysia. To sum it up, this time is already Malaysia’s best ever performance in badminton in Olympic stage. A huge congratulation and thank you to all the Malaysian badminton athletes!

As for the other sports, it is a big letdown from the Malaysian archery team which couldn’t even pass the qualifying round. A good news on top of that is that Azizulhasni Awang managed to win a bronze medal in cycling-keirin event. As for diving of which Malaysia is not bad in (but China always dominated this sport just like badminton), our divers, Pandelela Nirong and Cheong Jun Hoong won silver medal in women’s 10m synchronised platform. Fantastic! However, in individual event, Pandelela Nirong who was bronze medalist in London 2012 in that didn’t manage to perform well this time. But it’s all right. They did their best.

(Image above from Genting Rewards Malaysia)

So right now, Malaysia has 2 silver and 1 bronze which is already the best ever performance the country has in Olympic history. And then there’s still at least two silver (or hopefully two gold) already in the bag for the country. Well, now I’m hoping to be able to listen to our national anthem (Negaraku) later tonight! I will update this post soon with the latest results in badminton involving Malaysia. And again, all the best to our athletes in the finals!

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Update – 20 August 2016

Unfortunately, in our men doubles match last night, our Malaysian pair went down, defeated by the China’s pair in three games. We won in the first game, looking very confident, and I’m impressed by huge improvement on the players. However, we lost terribly in second game. Then, came the deciding game. Malaysian pair was behind few points most of the time but they fought back when it was almost the end which gave us back high hope. They secured gold medal points but they missed them out twice. Luck was not on their side and pressure took the toll on them. Hence, they lost 23-21 in the last deciding game, awarding the gold to China. That’s a huge wasted opportunity. We are so near this time. Anyway, still congratulation to them as they fight to their very best despite some major crucial mistakes in the final game. At least, they got a silver.

Well, I couldn’t watch tonight’s match for the men single because I would be in the aeroplane. I sincerely wish all the best to Dato Lee Chong Wei in that final against Chen Long of China as he is our last hope for Malaysia’s first ever Olympic gold medal now. Good luck and all the best to him! The whole country will cheer behind him!

 

Malaysia’s journey in Thomas Cup 2016 ended in semi-final.

Thomas Cup (and Uber Cup) arrived again. These two tournaments (Thomas for male and Uber for female) are one of the most prestigious badminton tournaments and they are held once in every two years concurrently. This year, both are held in China. The reason I’m paying attention to this is because Malaysia is in it for every editions of the tournaments since their inception.

Malaysia lost out in earlier rounds in the group matches for the Uber Cup. That is expected since our girls team isn’t good all along. We just bank in on our boys team from the very beginning. So, I’ll just put my focus and a bit of my analysis and observation to Malaysia’s performance in Thomas Cup this year. In the earlier group matches, Malaysia won its opponents quite easily, including winning over South Korea. South Korea is now seen as one of the very strong countries in this particular sport and yet, Malaysia defeated them to my surprise. Hence, Malaysia topped the group and was to face Taiwan, a much easier opponent in quarter final.

We had no trouble going through that and then we made it to the semi final. Here, Malaysia was up against Denmark. It should be looking good for our side too especially when we had won the first two matches. We just need to win another match to score 3 points out of five planned matches. However, things started to get unfortunate for Malaysia from the third match onward. In first match, Lee Chong Wei won over Viktor Axelsen as predicted. However, this Denmark player gave Chong Wei a tough time but luckily, Chong Wei managed to win in two games of which their scores in both games were neck-to-neck.

The first men doubles pair, Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong also managed to make us proud by giving us a much needed second point. Then, the second single match arrived where disaster struck Malaysia. Iskandar is our player here and he had won in all his games previously in this tournament before this semi-final. He is over confident and was being too cocky after leading in the first few points. From there on, the opponent strikes back with good tactics and won over Iskandar in the end. I personally don’t like Iskandar’s attitude on court. He had to fix that up soon and he still lacks the experience needed. He must understand that only smashing will not help you to win.

Then, our second men doubles also disappointed us. Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong whom were once an excellent pair (been former world champion, former Asian Games champion, former Commonwealth Games champion) are getting old and tired already. They won first game easily but performed below expectation in the second and eventually in the rubber game as well. Finally, all hope was on Chong Wei Feng for the last match to determine which country will enter the final. Wei Feng was too slow and steady on his attacking, and he also made mistakes on net. Very obvious and careless mistakes, and he look like he has no ‘fire’ or energy at all even before he started playing. In the end, he got defeated. So, we won first two points but Denmark fought back hard to win the last three points. 3-2. Denmark won and get to proceed to the final which is scheduled to be held tomorrow. They are to face Indonesia. If Denmark win, this would be their first ever Thomas Cup victory.

The sad face our our team’s captain, Lee Chong Wei shown on TV live with a glimpse of the Thomas Cup trophy on the left of the screen. There are still many things needed to be done to improve on our national badminton team, for both the boys and the girls. Denmark stunned me yesterday in the semi final with some excellent performance that I didn’t expect that could come out from them. They proved that an European country can still do very well in a sport favored in Asia. I was thinking that maybe Malaysia has chance to win the cup for the 6th time this year after we saw the surprising exit of China and South Korea in the quarter final. That hope went to an abrupt end in the semi final yesterday of which I did watch the matches live from YouTube. We have to accept the fact that we lost again and we have to move on. They did their best but certainly could be much better. So now, the next thing I’m looking forward to is seeing some of our players doing very well and winning a medal or two in Rio 2016 Summer Olympic Games that will arrive in less than three months from now.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Lee Chong Wei lost again in BWF World Badminton Championship’s Final

It has been a busy weekend for me and things didn’t turn out that well as expected. Yesterday, I went to the ARCHIDEX 2015 on its last day of exhibition. This year, I collected very little brochures, bags, and only a single pen. It’s so different to the last few visits to this annual architectural exhibition of which I can have many useful complimentary stuff. On the other hand, I watched two new movies (reviews in my previous post) and they are bad and poorly made. This weekend, I have to spend time working on renovation drawings for my cousin’s shop. That’s a part-time job for me but there is some problem with the 3D modelling and rendering that wasted much of my time which is supposed to be used for other things.

Well, negative feeling isn’t over yet as I watched the final men singles match of this year’s World Badminton Championship just now and Lee Chong Wei lost again. A repeating heartbreak to all Malaysians. He lost to the same guy last year. Who is he? Lin Dan? Nope. It’s Chen Long, the new rising superpower from China. Lin Dan is surprisingly knocked out by Denmark’s Jan O Jorgensen in semi-final, hence making the path slightly easier for Chong Wei. However, his last year’s opponent do managed to climb to the final spot with him, and finally defeated him again to take the championship.

Chen Long is fantastic on all his attack and defense skills on court. He is energetic (well, he is still young, only in mid 20s) and he is able to control the court easily with little mistakes. On the other hand, Lee Chong Wei seems to be exhausted despite already minimal running around the court. His age puts him down. He is already 33. He couldn’t catch up to the pace and strength from Chen Long whom is now famously known as the next Lin Dan. I pitied Chong Wei. He had won many smaller badminton tournaments but seldom wins the big ones. In fact, he had never win Asian Games gold, Olympics gold, or this World Badminton Championship. I guess he has really no luck on his side in major championships.

Well, he had to stick to his first runner-up position again in the just concluded match against Chen Long. Forever No.2 placing most of the time. He lost in two straight games, 21-14 and 21-17. Well, he is at least better than all the other Malaysian players who lost out in earlier matches of the championship. The current situation looks horrifying for Malaysia with no steady and excellent talents coming out. We have only Lee Chong Wei for all these years and he is definitely going to retire soon (most probably next year after Rio 2016 Olympics that will give him final chance for an Olympic gold medal after only winning two silvers in the past). Even, I think the chance for an Olympic gold medal from him next year is quite slim with Chen Long on his fantastic form in recent years.

Last time, we had Lin Dan who blocked the way for Chong Wei. Now, Lin Dan seems to be out of sight sometimes and things may be in favor for Chong Wei. However, now China has Chen Long to bank on. Arrggh…that’s bad and sad. But we knew Chong Wei did his very best all the time and he is still our Number 1 (despite everyone agreed that he is actually world number two in terms of achievement and performances in this sport).

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Junior Purple League 2015, a great platform to help develop Malaysia’s badminton talent.

Junior Purple League 2015 is a brand new badminton event in Malaysia targeted toward 13 to 18 years old junior players. It is a league running from 15th August to 18th October 2015 and is comprising of 11 participating badminton clubs of which each club will play every other club in the league. This league will serve as a curtain raiser for the Purple League, Malaysia’s first professional badminton league which will commence in this coming November for its second season. Now, the young Malaysian badminton players who wish to further excel in this particular sport could have a bright future ahead by making his or her first step in this newly-introduced junior league.

The league would be on a mixed team format consisting of 5 matches; boy’s singles, girl’s singles, boy’s doubles, girl’s doubles and mixed doubles. Every match in a tie shall be played to the best of 5 games to 11 points. The matches will not only be played at the Sports Arena Sentosa, but also at various venues of the participating clubs. The top three teams of the league, ranked according to the highest aggregate of games won against games lost, will share the prize money pool of RM 175 000 as follows; champion will win RM 100 000, first runner-up will win RM 50 000 while second runner-up will win RM 25 000.

Interested to watch the league? Do check out its official website at this link : http://purpleleague.com/ for all the information regarding the league which will starts in a few days. The tickets to the venues are complimentary. It has also a Facebook page at this link: https://www.facebook.com/purpleleague. Interested to join the league? Well, I encouraged you to join one of the many badminton clubs in Malaysia quick. Don’t put your time and passion on badminton to a waste. Then, you may be the one up on the court in the running for the championship of the league next year!

Well, I myself is too old for this junior league. But what about you? I like badminton. I used to play badminton quite frequently back in the olden days. Now, I have grown up and got myself busy with office works till I have to keep my exercising simple by simply just jogging for once in a week. No more badminton. But my interest in this sport never fades. I still love to watch badminton games especially the world-class tournaments. Most Malaysians adore badminton. It is one of the Olympic sport that we can say that we are good at eventhough we still couldn’t manage to win an Olympic gold medal from it. Well, at least we had two silvers, thanks to our beloved Dato’ Lee Chong Wei (in Beijing 2008 and London 2012) as well as many great achievements by the other Malaysian players in the past.

I took the effort to produce this blog post highlighting this wonderful event not only because that I’m invited to do so but also that I find this Junior Purple League a really good platform to develop more youngsters to become top players in badminton. A fantastic event. Malaysia is currently in need of more excellent badminton players and this Junior Purple League may be an awesome kick-starter for more future badminton talents. I’m happy to promote this event and I’m glad to be part of this movement to help developing this sport in my country, Malaysia.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

The 4 Kings of Badminton.

Badminton has been one of my favourite sports. I seldom play badminton but I love to watch badminton tournaments. There has been quite a lot of talks on this particular sport this month. The first is when Lee Chong Wei can get back to play in badminton tournaments beginning this month after he is banned for eight months from his doping case last year. Next was the prestigious Sudirman Cup 2015, a mixed team championship held this month too and won by the reigning champion and host nation, China as expected. And then, recently, YONEX organized a friendly exhibition match in China and invited the 4 great kings of badminton.

Who are the 4 kings of badminton? They must possess impressive records in the sport, well known, have held world number one ranked player and considered as icon of badminton respectively. They are Lin Dan of China, Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia, Taufik Hidayat of Indonesia and Peter Gade of Denmark. 4 men, 4 different countries, and they ruled the sport respectively (in men single event) from 2000s.

Lin Dan (China)

– Age 32 this year.

– Two-time Olympic champion (gold-medalist), five-time World champion, and five-time All England champion.

– By age of 28, he had won all nine major titles in badminton world; Olympic Games, World Championships, World Cup (no more now), Thomas Cup, Sudirman Cup, Super Series Masters Finals, All England Open, Asian Games and Asian Championships, becoming the first and only player in history to achieve that.

– 57 career titles to date.

– Currently in semi-retired position.

Lee Chong Wei (Malaysia)

– Age 33 this year.

– Ranked first worldwide in men-single badminton player for the longest, for 298 weeks. Have been ranked first worldwide for a consecutive 199 weeks.

– Two-time Olympic silver-medalist, currently the most successful Malaysian Olympian in history, and earned him the title of Dato’. Also two-time Commonwealth Games gold-medalist. Won Malaysian Open for a record 10 times.

– 55 career titles to date.

– Currently still actively playing in tournaments.

Taufik Hidayat (Indonesia)

– Age 34 this year.

– Olympic champion (gold medalist), also champion in World Championships, Asian Championships, Asian Games, South East Asian Games, and Thomas Cup.

– Won Indonesian Open for a record 6 times.

– Over 27 career titles to date.

– Currently retired.

Peter Gade (Denmark)

– Age 39 this year.

– 5-time winner of European Championships, All England champion, World GrandPrix champion.

– Over 40 career titles to date.

– Currently retired.

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Out of the 4 great men in badminton, Lin Dan is no doubt the most successful in the history of badminton. Nicknamed ‘Super Dan’, he is simply unbeatable in most of the major tournaments he participated in. No one can challenge his record. Also let us not forget the mighty presence of Lee Chong Wei. Despite not winning all the major titles, but his very active participation in almost all the badminton championships available and winning many of them helped him become the longest number one player in history. Taufik Hidayat and Peter Gade are also awesome in this particular sport.

Right now, the number one player (in men single) is Chen Long from China. He is one strong badminton player to fear for right now.

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)

Malaysia in Sudirman Cup 2015: Great start but luck didn’t last any longer.

This year, the 14th Sudirman Cup is currently being held at Dongguan, China from 10th to 17th May 2015. It is a prestigious world mixed team badminton championship which takes place once every two years. There are five matches in every round: men and women’s singles, men and women’s doubles and mixed doubles. The Cup is named after Dick Sudirman, a former Indonesian badminton player and the founder of the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI). There is no prize money in Sudirman Cup and only a trophy to be won; players play for their respective countries and to earn BWF world ranking points and national prestige.

Nations competing in Sudirman Cup 2015. Only teams in group 1 will have a chance to lift the trophy as the teams in other groups fight for promotion. The teams who finish last in the group will be relegated to the lower group, except the final group:

How is Malaysia performing in the history of this tournament? Not good. Malaysia has never win this championship before. The best our country did was back in 2009 when we advanced to the semi-final. Just that. Not even a single final appearance in the history of Sudirman Cup. At least we have better records at Thomas Cup. And just like Thomas and Uber Cup, China won the most. They are indeed one super strong nation in this particular sport currently.

I’m particularly interested about the result of this Sudirman Cup 2015 recently, particularly from our Malaysian team as this also marked the return of Lee Chong Wei, our most credible men-single player to the sport after he was banned from playing for eight months due to a doping case last year in World Championship. And as usual, he delivered on all the matches and shown to the world that after a long break, he is still one tough opponent to challenge (besides than Chen Long and Lin Dan of course).

Earlier in the group stage, Malaysia surprisingly knocked down another badminton giant, South Korea by 3-2. I did watched parts of the matches, and I’m quite impressed by my country’s performance. Hey…we stand a chance at least to go to semi-final! South Korea is also unbelievably poor this time and delivered many mistakes and obvious weaknesses. I’m quite shocked that we defeated them. Next was India and we won them too by 3-2. This win is quite predictable.

Then, Malaysia advanced to the quarterfinal. Wait…this is a good sign for Malaysia. Let’s hope that we will be drawn to play against weaker opponent in the quarterfinal like Germany or Chinese Taipei. But, luck is not on our side. Malaysia was drawn to meet South Korea again of which the latter defeated India to get into Top 8 standing too. And so, in yesterday’s quarterfinal, Malaysia lost by 1-3, without the need for final match (mixed-doubles). Luck felt short for our country in the time when it mattered the most. South Korea had a successful revenge on us. And actually, the system is a bit wrong. How can we deal with the same opponent again? Badminton World Federation (BWF) have to look seriously into this matter and improve the tournament’s system.

To be honest with you, after my observation in these recent matches, I find that our boys have the potential to excel to further improve their skills. They always delivered the points for us. But certainly not the girls. Sorry, this is not gender discrimination but a fact. We lost in all of our matches in women categories in the tournament (don’t count the mixed doubles). And yea…only the woman in that mixed-double has some hope. The girls have to really look into themselves and work hard quickly to achieve at least a not so embarassing outcome like this. Not to be harsh to them, but please, all have to improve and should not only depend on Lee Chong Wei to give an almost absolute winning point. Even if that is so, Lee Chong Wei is getting older and his strength and momentum on court is decreasing eventually.

Hmm…when can we go back to our country’s golden era in badminton?

(Images in this post are from various sources throughout the world wide web)