Malaysians Enter All Five Badminton Finals In The Youth Games

PETALING JAYA: A possible clean sweep of all five gold medals in badminton beckons for Malaysia for the first time in the Commonwealth Youth Games in the Isle of Man.

A gold medal is already assured in the women’s doubles after Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean and Sonia Cheah-Yang Li Lian made it an all-Malaysian final affair.

Top seeded Mei Kuan-Meng Yean, the Asian Junior Championships runners-up, overcame Australia’s Jacqueline Guan-Gronya Somerville 21-7, 21-19 while the unseeded pair of Sonia-Li Lian beat Sri Lankan pair A. Rathnasiri- U. Samanthika 21-16, 22-20 in the semi-finals on Saturday.

Double challenge: Sonia Cheah is through to both the women’s singles and doubles finals of the Commonwealth Youth Games’ badminton competition in the Isle of Man.

Reigning Asian junior champion Zulfadli Zulkifli did not allow a right leg injury to hinder him in his quest to deliver the men’s singles gold for Malaysia.

Zulfadli sustained the injury during the match against India’s P. Joshi 21-13, 19-21, 21-19 but slogged through reach the semi-finals in the morning.

The top seeded Malaysian seeked treatment later and was forced to concede a walkover in the doubles quarter-finals match partnering Joo Ven against England’s Ryan McCarthy-Tom Wolfenden.

He returned to the court in the afternoon to beat England’s Ryan Walker 21-12, 21-10 to reach the singles final.

Another representative, Soong Joo Ven was shown the exit with a 12-21, 15-21 defeat by India’s S. Verma, who later reached the final from the bottom half of the draw.

Sonia also advanced to the women’s singles final and will take on Pusaria Sindhu of India for the gold medal.

Third seeded Sonia overcame a fighting Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland 21-19, 10-21, 21-11 while Li Lian failed to get the better of the top seeded Indian shuttler in her semi-finals match. Li Lian lost 12-21, 10-21.

The top junior men’s doubles pairing of Nelson Heg-Teo Ee Yi will be gunning for gold when they take on the English pairing of McCarthy-Wolfenden in the final.

Nelson-Ee Yi marched to the final after beating Canadian pair Nathan Choi-Nyi Yakura 21-17, 21-11.

Ee Yi-Mei Kuan ensured Malaysia have a representative in the mixed doubles as well after reaching the final, where they will face Indian challengers Srikanth Kidambi-Maneesha Kukkapalli.

National junior coach Yap Kim Hock is confident Malaysia will better their achievement from the previous edition in Pune, India two years ago.

In the 2008 edition, the Malaysian contingent won three gold, five silver and four bronze medals with badminton accounting for two golds and shooting contributing one.

“One gold medal is already in the bag and we hope to get two more at least.

“Badminton should deliver the most medals this time as we are also hopeful of getting two more bronze medals in the mixed doubles (Nelson-Meng Yean) and women’s singles (Li Lian),” said Kim Hock.

In athletics, Ali Ashraf Razali did well to finish fourth in the men’s 100m hurdles final clocking 14.06.

In cycling, Ju Pha Som Net was placed eighth in the women’s 60km road race while Hamdan Hamidun ended 35th in the men’s 100km event.

Swimmers Tern Jian Han and Chi Chia Khian were fifth and sixth in the men’s 100m butterfly while Erika Kong earned a fifth placing in the women’s 50m breaststroke.

Malaysia sent a 23-member strong contingent to compete in four of the seven sports contested.