We arrived at the stadium rather early at around 12pm+. 贝 had asked one of his friends to buy the tickets for us a few days before in case the tickets were sold out. It was only when we were at the entrance that we realized the tickets were still sold on the day of tournament. We could have saved the 1.5 hours of standing at the entrance if we had bought the tickets ourselves on that day instead of waiting for the tickets from his friend.
While we were waiting, we walked around the compound of the stadium and took some pictures.
A big rotating shuttlecock near the entrance of the stadium
Proton exhibiting Lotus cars
TV stations broadcasting the tournament
At around 1pm, the foreign players arrived in a bus and walked pass us. I had seen some of them before on TV and this was the first time i saw them in person.
Foreign badminton players entering the stadium
We entered the stadium at around 1.30pm, and the center of the seating area was almost fully occupied. Since we wanna get a good view of the badminton courts, we sat on the stairs instead of moving to another area.
(Audiences were not allowed to use camera flash lights in the stadium to prevent distracting the players during matches. Adding in the factor of distance between the seating area and the badminton courts, the photos i took in the stadium were thus not so clear. Click on the images to enlarge them.)
As it was the semi-finals, there would be two matches held concurrently at two different courts. Only one would be broadcasted live on TV, and of course whichever match with Malaysian players in it would be arranged to be played at the one to be broadcasted.
Two badminton courts (the linesmen were queuing up at the back for rehearsal of their grand entrance)
All the equipments for live broadcasting on TV
The linesmen all seated for one of the courts
The first two matches were mixed doubles. For the match between Thailand and Singapore, we were cheering on for the Thai team. And the Thai team did win (yay!).
Mixed doubles: Thailand vs. Singapore (the female player was from China and the male player was from Indonesia)
For the match between China and Indonesia, we could sense the racial split among the audiences, with the Malays supporting team Indonesia and Malaysian Chinese supporting team China. Sigh, i guess everything in this country is about races, even for sports.
Mixed doubles: China vs. Indonesia (don't be mistaken that this was men's doubles match even though it looks like there were four guys on the court; the female players were really tomboyish)
After the mixed doubles, women's doubles were up next. Malaysian team was in one of the women's doubles matches, and so before the game started, the organizer distributed something to the audiences for cheering our home team on. I think that thing is called a cheer sticks or thunder sticks but i'm not too sure of the exact names. Anyway, it looks like this after inflated and can make very loud noise when hit against one another:
The noise they made were like metal sticks even though the materials were vinyl
The audience getting all excited at getting the cheer sticks
The Malaysian team in the women's doubles were self-sponsored participants but both ladies were in our national team a few years back. Their opponent were from Taiwan. Despite being on the home court, the Malaysian pairs performed badly.
Women's doubles: Taiwan vs. Malaysia
The other match of women's doubles (China vs. China) was not played with one team getting walkover from another. So while the women's doubles were going on at one court, the other court proceeded with Women's Singles (Hong Kong vs. China).
Women's Singles: Hong Kong vs. China
The other match of Women's Singles was played after the women's doubles.
Women's Singles: China vs. Japan
I think the highlights of the semi-finals were one of the matches of men's singles and the two matches of men's doubles. For men's singles, our very own Lee Chong Wei played against Korean player Park Sung Hwan. The crowd welcomed him to the court like a hero and all went wild when he beat the Korean player in two sets. The men's doubles match between archenemy Indonesia and Malaysia was also very exciting, with the Malaysian and Indonesian supporters having a competition of their own in cheering for respective team.
Men's Singles: Malaysia vs. Korea
Men's Singles: China vs. Thailand
Men's Doubles: Korea vs. Malaysia
Men's Doubles: Indonesia vs. Malaysia
As 贝 and i had been sitting on the floor for hours, our bodies and butts were aching terribly. So we moved to the back of the seating area during the first men's doubles match. While we were there, i noticed some young Chinese and Korean players were doing video recording of the matches. 贝 told me that they were preparing for the Thomas Cup by taping down the Malaysian players' performance for analysis.
Korean "spy" recording the matches of Malaysian players
贝 and i didn't finish watching the last match (Indonesia vs Malaysia) and left earlier because we didn't wanna be stuck in the traffic after the match was over. It was a wise move, as there were so many cars that the parking lot couldn't accommodate all and the cars were parked along the roads, backing up at least 1km away from the stadium. I couldn't imagine how long it would take us to leave if we were to stay on till the last minute of the match.
The final was held the next day (Sunday) and here's the results.
It was kinda fun to experience the atmosphere of a live tournament, especially to join fellow Malaysians in supporting our national players. I could truly feel the air of patriotism, where every Malaysian, regardless of race or religion, just cheer the national players on. And when our players won the match, the feeling of exhilaration was simply indescribable. Yes, that was the moment when we were truly proud of our country and appreciate the meaning of "Malaysia Boleh"!
Labels: malaysia
