It has been a gruelling 24 hours for our Malaysian men’s doubles badminton team, Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong.
Last night, the duo fought hard against world #1 pair Lee Yong Dae/Yoon Yeon Seong from South Korea for a spot in the Rio 2016 men’s doubles badminton semi-finals. They emerged winners of that match, but their fight continued today as they took on powerful Chinese pair Chai Biao/Hong Wei.
The Malaysia vs. China heart-stopping semi-final match ended 21-18, 12-21, 21-17 after 3 sets in 64 minutes.
Now, not only do Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong have at least a silver Rio Olympics medal in the bag, they’re also in the contention for an Olympic gold medal. And the shuttlers are pumped to achieve their goal!
NST quoted Wee Kiong as saying, “It is an amazing feeling. We wanted this so badly and I am so happy that we made the final. We made some mistakes, especially in the second game, but our determination to make the final was strong.”
“We have secured a medal but that is not enough. We are going for gold,” V Shem added.
https://twitter.com/Rio2016_en/status/765548085984591872
Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong are the first Malaysian pair to make the final since Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock won silver in the 1996 Atlanta Games.
They will soon play either China’s Fu Haifeng/Zhan Nan or Great Britain’s Marcus Ellis/Chris Langridge in the final on Friday (19th August) at 10:50pm Malaysian time.
More to come.
Sources: malaysiakini, NST.
