The decor at the stadium was more or less the same as last year, with the same posters and the same big rotating shuttlecock in front of the stadium. After 贝 and i arrived at the stadium, we just went straight in instead of waiting at the entrance like last year.
The Malaysian teams were in the mixed doubles, women's singles, men's singles and men's doubles (three pairs). With all the recent media hype surrounding our men's doubles stars Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong, everyone was with the expectation that they would sure be the winner for this year.
Frankly, i found the game to be less exciting this year. I didn't take as many pics this time either. It was still a great feeling though to be cheering for our players with fellow countrymen.
Mixed doubles was the first game and it was a disappointment. Our players didn't play well. It was rather apparent that the male player Mohd Tazari Mohd Fair didn't give his 100%. We believed that he wanted to reserve his energy for the men's doubles, as his performance later in the men's doubles was so much different from when he was playing the mixed doubles; it was as if he was a different person entirely.
Both Sui and i found that to be a bad display of sportsmanship. For the mixed doubles, we were playing against China, while for the men's doubles, it was Malaysian vs. Malaysian. I understand that we have many good pairs of men's doubles and the competition to outshine each other is probably cutthroat, but i thought the country should come before individuals. Oh well, for a person like me who's not so patriotic myself, i think i'd better not comment too much on this.
Wong Mew Choo and Yeoh Kay Bin didn't come through for Malaysia in the women's and men's singles either. The Malaysian crowd was greatly disappointed.
For men's doubles, the first game was Malayisan vs. Malaysian (Abdul Latif Mohd Zakry & Mohd.Tazari Mohd Fair vs. Choong Tan Fook & Lee Wan Wah). We were rooting for the defending champion Choong and Lee. After a bad start in the first set, they finally pulled it through and went into the finals.
(At points 6 vs. 5)
Then came our stars Koo and Tan. They were welcomed into the badminton court like heroes, but they were a disappointment in the first set. The Taiwanese opponents weren't such strong players and yet our star players actually lost the first set. They did win in the following two sets and went into the finals, but their performances weren't as good as they should have been. During the game, i could feel the sweat in my palms and thinking that how they would be laughed at if they were to lose to the Taiwanese team after all the hoo-haa about them in the media.
(At points 19 vs. 10)
I think all the media hype was actually bad for them. Since they were back from their victory in the All England and Swiss Open, they had been attending all kinds of events, functions and interviews instead of concentrating on their training. We have seen this happening before, and we are making the same mistake again.
True enough, in the finals this afternoon, they were defeated by Choong and Lee. Well, i think it's good that they lost to our own players and it's in this championship, rather than to other country in an international tournament of a larger scale. Hopefully it's a lesson learnt and they could get their act together and bring home the title for our country in the BWF World Championships that's gonna be held in KL this August.
Labels: malaysia
