The Star Sports Monday December 10, 2007 Shameful defeats for our shuttlers THE Malaysian men's and women's badminton teams suffered humiliating defeats by Singapore in the semi-finals at the Vongchavalitkul University gymnasium in Korat yesterday. The men's singles players Yeoh Kay Bin and Chan Kwong Beng were a letdown in their team's 1-3 defeat yesterday. Kay Bin, who is ranked 21st in the world, failed to come good in his first major Games and was beaten 10-21, 13-21 by Kendrick Lee. And to make it a miserable night for the team, one of the country's top doubles pair Gan Teik Chai-Lin Woon Fui hardly gave any fight in their 14-21, 13-21 defeat by Hendra Wijaya-Hendri Kurniawan Saputra. Kuan Beng Hong pulled a point back when he blew away Ashton Chen 21-10, 21-5. But national back-up player Kwong Beng, who had held a 19-17 lead in the first game, failed to save the tie for Malaysia when he crumbled under pressure losing 20-22, 12-21 to Derek Wong. In the women's competition, Malaysia were banking on lanky Lydia Cheah to save the day after the Malaysians were tied at 2-2 with Singapore. But the youngster, making her debut in the Games, went down 13-21, 21-18, 17-21 to China-born Gu Juan. The first point yesterday came from Julia Wong, who got Malaysia off to a rousing start in the first singles with a hard-fought 21-15, 19-21, 21-16 over Xing Aiying. After the failures by Anita Raj Kaur and Wong Pei Tty-Ng Hui Lin, the scratch combination of Goh Liu Ying-Woon Khe Wei levelled the tie with a 21-17, 21-19 win over Sari Shinta Mulia-Vanessa Neo Yu Yan. Singapore will play against Indonesia in both the men's and women's team final today. (For the record, Fu Mingtian bt Anita Raj Kaur 21-18, 21-16; Li Yujia/Jiang Yanmei bt Wong Pei Tty/Ng Hui Lin 21-14, 21.14)
Singapore Men and Women's teams in Finals The Straits Times December 10, 2007 By Leonard Lim in Korat It was a familiar situation Kendrick Lee found himself in yesterday. The Singaporean was up against a higher-ranked player. But the world No 24 overcame the odds to beat Malaysian Yeoh Kay Bin in the opening match of the South-east Asia Games men's team semi-finals. Yeoh, ranked three places higher, lost 10-21, 13-21. That point set Singapore on the way to a 3-1 victory over Malaysia, who were missing world No 2 Lee Chong Wei and All-England doubles champions Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong. Singapore were without thier No 1 Ronald Susilo, who was rested after straining an arm muscle in Saturday's quarter-final win over Vietnam. Malaysia's solitary point came from Kuan Beng Hong, who beat Ashton Chen 21-10, 21-5. The Republic's Derek Wong beat Chan Kwong Beng 22-20, 21-12, while Hendri Saputra and Hendra Wijaya t3amed up to beat James Gan and Lin woon Fui 21-13, 21-13. Said Lee: "It feels great, overcoming all these top players. But the spirit in this team is great, and we all wanted to do it for each other." The day was made even sweeter when the women's team overcame Malaysia 3-2 to move into today's final. Both men and women are up against Indonesia. Fu Mingtian, Gu Juan and the doubles pairing of Jiang Yanmei and Li Yujia secured the win. The shuttlers could now deliver two golds, after a long SEA Games drought. A gold has eluded the men since Wong Shoon Keat's (Derek's father) triumph in the men's singles in 1983. In the last decade, the women have delivered only one gold - the team title in Vietnam in 2003. (By the way, Kendrick Lee was Singapore's flag bearer during the opening ceremony. An honour indeed for Singapore Badminton!)
Don't thing is relevant. If Malaysia was against Thailand or Indonesia, do you thing will be different outcome ?. Looking for excuses is not healthy.
congratz to singapore teams... hmmmm they will meet ina teams... too bad.. i hope they can give ina teams good fights
Does it really matter? What matters is they ARE TRAINED and GROW UP in Singapore. Oh...in fact the bulk of the men's team such as Kendrick Lee Yen Hui, Khoo Kian Teck, Ashton Chen Yong Zhao, Derek Wong Zi Liang are born in Singapore. Ronald has been in Singapore since his youth. Give them credits for that
Really doesn't matter to us anymore. Young talented athletes are welcome to join us to raise the standards and hopefully we can contribute to regional and international sports in the process. Singapore knows its limitations but through the foreign talent programe, I think we have gained more than we lost. Of course, we gained much more in business (the economy) than in sports for the present. Our local standards have certainly improved. Both Kendrick Lee and Derek Wong, who contributed two points are Singapore-born. Ashton Chen who lost meekly to Kuan Beng Hong, is also local-born. By exposing themselves to talented foreign players, our locals are beginning to approach their level and it may come a time when we will have a full team of local players. Some sports have already achieved this like sailing and swimming, although the latter has yet to achieve higher than regional standards. Our relatively infant Sports School will help to deliver the goods. Through the employment of experienced foreign coaches, Singapore hopes to catch up not only regionally but internationally as well. May I add that Eng Hian (Indonesian coach) must have coached the Saputra borthers well to beat James Gan and Lin Woon Fui quite convincingly. I attended two days of the just-concluded Cheers Age Group Doubles Tournament (5 categories for male and female) and was delighted to see that the interest in badminton continues to rise. This in part is due to the success that Singapore badminton has managed to excite the school children with their wins in overseas tournaments like this SEA Games success, which we are assured of a silver in both events. Of course our government is playing an important part too by promoting sports and building beautiful sports arenas and facilities to complement existing ones. The latest bid to go for the inaugural Youth Olympics really lifted the imagination of many, both young and old.
I'm a Malaysian so I'm pretty sure you're used to digs coming from across the Causeway. I was surprised you took it seriously.
Well for the men's team it will be 30/70. But for the women's team it will be 50/50. IMHO But I'm hoping our boys can give me a pleasant surprise!
Congrats to Uncle Loh and the SG badminton squad and supporters for making the final. In the women's team event, MAS indeed missed our local heroine WMC and CEH. With at least one of them around, we could probably have turned the tables. Yet it was a very brave battle from the "mostly" young squad, 2-3 scoreline is not bad at all, and Lydia Cheah did try her best to save the game, but Gu Juan was just too good. Great spirit against superior opponents. Not so the men's team, really even if they were 3rd stringer MAS squad (and they are not), the performance was pathetic. If Ronald were playing, maybe we would have been blanked 3-0. YKB performed badly and Gan/Lin are not up to the challenge of leading the team and rallying the players after we lost the 1st match. KLRC players would have done better ......
"Unthinkable" ??? When WMC can beat the world No.1 - unthinkable? I think you must now change a little bit of your thinking!
wilfredlgf,u shouldnt ask that question.all of us know.u'll just provoke the singaporeans.they have won.thats the result. and the lost? we deserve it.second team ha?thats what we got.we are aiming for the olympic too much n ignore Sea games.we want it.and we got it malay old saying-yang dikejar tak dapat,yang dikendong berciciran. hope we wont face the same thing.this sacrifice will be repayed next year.(i hope). sacrifece a gold medal?wow.zolkeples embong must know what he has been doing.really.