Wednesday, August 10, 2011

SILENCING THE ENGLISH

Malaysian mixed doubles pair of Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Yin silenced the partisan English crowd at the Wembley Arena when they sent the 10th seeds of Nathan Robertson/Jenny Walker packing in the second round of the World Championships this evening.

It was a glorious display by the duo who defeated the English pair 21-19,21-19 in a tie that lasted 42 minutes.

And in the mixed doubles, Ong Jien Guo/Chomg sook Chin defeated Taiwan's Liao Min Chun/Chen Hsiao Huan 21-18,21-16.

But it was curtains for the women's doubles pair of Ng Hui Ern/Ng Hui Lin who were defeated by Japan's Misaki Matsutomo/Takahashi Ayaka 21-10,21-11.

Earlier in the day, men's doubles pair of Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif/Hoon Thien How had only themselves to blame as they went down 24-26,19-21 to Taiwan's Fang Chieh Min/Lee Shen Mu.

In the first sent the Malaysian duo held set point four times but failed to find the elusive point and in the second they were obviously tired as they wilted from the constant attacking display by their opponents.

It was obvious that the duo were not fit, not for such an event like the World Championships, a fact acknowledged by the National Sports Institute Director General Dato Dr. Ramlan Abdul Aziz who shook his head in despair.

"They really need to shed some weight if they harbour hopes of doing well at the top stage.  we just have to re-look at their program and tweak it so that it will be able to help them be more agile on the court," conceded Ramlan.

The size of the duo was also the subject of discussions by several Malaysian officials after the dust settled, with the consensus being that BAM had erred in picking the duo above Gan Teik Chai/Tan Bin shen.