Malaysians falter in finals
BA of Malaysia (BAM) technical director Morten Frost conceded that both the national men’s and women’s team lost to better sides in the final of the Kuala Lumpur Sea Games (KL2017) on Thursday.
In the men’s team final, Indonesia once again reigned supreme, scoring a 3-0 win at the Axiata Arena while in the women’s final, Thailand recorded a 3-1 victory, both successfully defending their gold medals from two years ago in Singapore.
“We fell short, I would say in the women’s team event Thailand were favourites, just look at their rankings. Everybody would have expected them to win.
“And if you look at the men’s team, the Indonesians were also ranked higher than us and they were favourites to win as well.
“However, it was more overwhelming in the men’s event because our women’s team gave a really good fight, they were close. But the men’s, too far.”
On Malaysia’s chances ahead of the individual event tomorrow, Frost added: “Tomorrow is a new day. I think it was good that Zii Jia got a chance to play today.”
On a separate note, the Dane also explained that it will not be easy to achieve the target of two gold medals set by the association prior to the Games.
“Two gold medals is ambitious because Thailand are very good in their women’s singles and doubles, and as you can see Indonesia are very strong in the men’s department.
“We have the mixed doubles left and there is a fair chance but we need to over-perform to win two gold medals.”
At the previous Games, Malaysia won two gold medals through men’s singles Chong Wei Feng and women’s doubles Amelia Alicia Anscelly-Soong Fie Cho.
Thailand 3 Malaysia 1 — Singles: Busanan Ongbamrungphan (Tha) bt Soniia Cheah 21-12, 21-10; Puttita Supajirakul-Sapsiree Taerattanachai (Tha) bt Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei 9-21, 2111, 21-18; Goh Jin Wei bt Nitchaon Jindapol (Tha) 22-20, 23-25, 22-20; Kititharakul Jongkolphan-Prajongjai Rawinda (Tha) bt Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean 21-12, 16-21, 21-18
— Indonesia 3 Malaysia 0— Jonatan Christie (Ina) bt Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin 21-18, 21-17; Alfian Fajar-Muhammad Rian Ardianto (Ina) bt Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi 21-12, 16-21, 21-14;
Ihsan Maulana Mustofa (Ina) bt Lee Zii Jia 21-11, 21-11. Fabian Peter