Gold coming Soon?

Badminton captain hopes to be third time lucky – despite Thai threat

BADMINTON team captain Chan

Peng Soon hopes to be third time lucky at the SEA Games, but he’s wary of the threat posed by Thailand's Dechapol PuavaranukrohSapsiree Taerattanachai.

Old-timer Peng Soon and 21-yearold Cheah Yee See are one of the Malaysia’s two mixed doubles pairs and targeted to win medals when the individual competition begins at the Axiata Arena in Bukit Jalil from Aug 25-29.

The other mixed doubles pair are Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie.

Peng Soon has won SEA Games medals twice with regular partner Goh Liu Ying, who is recovering from a shoulder surgery in May.

Peng Soon-Liu Ying, the 2016 Rio Olympic silver medallists and 2017 All-England runners-up, won bronze at Laos 2009 and silver at Singapore 2015.

“It’ll be perfect to win a gold. That will com- plete my medal collection,” said the 29-year-old Peng Soon.

“But the Thais are more established than all the other pairs in the competition.”

World No. 8 Dechapol-Sapsiree had qualified for the World Championships in Glasgow, Scotland from Aug 21-27 but decided to skip it to win gold at the KL Games.

The Thai duo have been impressive this year, winning the Swiss Open and the Asian Badminton Championships in China.

Indonesia, who have dominated the mixed doubles in the last six SEA Games, are banking on world No. 32 Hafiz Faizal-Shela Devi Aulia to carry their challenge this time as their two top pairs – Tontowi Ahmad-Lilyana Natsir and Praveen Jordan-Debby Susanto – are competing in the world meet.

Peng Soon fancies his chances although he only began partnering Yee See in June.

“I’m happy with the progress shown by my younger partner. She was timid and shy initially.

But now she’s more confident,” said Peng Soon, who won the Russian Open title with Yee See last month.

■ BADMINTON Association of Malaysia (BAM) president Datuk Seri Norza Zakaria will celebrate his 51st birthday on Aug 29 – and that could turn out to be one of the best days of his life.

Five SEA Games individual badminton finals will be held on that day and he’s quietly confident that Malaysia will be represented in all five.

“We’ve set a two-gold target for the Games. “It’ll be a great birthday gift for me if the team can deliver more than that,” said Norza.

“The formidable Thailand and Indonesia, however, could spoil his party.