Badminton gold in Sydney for Phl pair
The Philippines’ Peter Gabriel Magnaye and Thea Marie Pomar hammered out a shock 21-9, 21-19 victory over the fourth-seed pair of Oliver Leydon-Davis and Anona Pak of New Zealand Saturday night to snare the mixed doubles gold in the Sydney International Badminton 2019 in Australia.
It was a proud performance for the Magnaye-Pomar tandem as they also brought down fifth pick Po Li-Wei and Yu Chien Hui of Chinese Taipei, 21-13, 21-11, in the semifinals the day before that paved the way for their Cinderella finish.
Magnaye and Pomar’s other wins came at the expense of No. 6 Michael Soon How Lim and Victoria He, 21-13, 21-13, in the first round, Dylan Soedjasa and Justine Villegas of Australia, 21-12, 21-16, in the next and Australia’s Ming Chuen Lim and Yingzi Jiang, 21-15, 21-17, in the quarterfinals.
Magnaye tried to make it a twin-kill as he teamed up with Alvin Morada in the men’s doubles only to run into the gritty pair of Chen Xin-Yuan and Lin Yu-Chieh of Chinese Taipei and absorbed a heartbreaking 21-9, 11-21, 1521 defeat to settle for silver.
The Magnaye-Morada duo failed to sustain its pulse-pounding, come-from-behind 21-19, 18-21, 26-24, win over Liao Kuan Hao and Po Li-Wei of Chinese Taipei in the semis the night before in a game where the Filipinos fought five match points before prevailing.
It was an impressive performance still for the Philippines as it ended up with a haul of one gold, a silver and a bronze courtesy of Morada and Alyssa Yasbel Leonardo in the mixed doubles.
Morada and Leonardo made it as far as the semis before they were ambushed by LeydonDavis and Pak, 15-21, 18-21.