Nitchaon remembers granny

A tearful Nitchaon Jindapol dedicated her badminton bronze medal to her late grandmother who passed away just three days before the world No.11 left Thailand for the 18th Asian Games.

Thailand had to settle for a third-place finish after losing to China in the semifinals of the women’s team event yesterday.

The Chinese avenged their Uber Cup loss with a comprehensive 3-0 win and will now play Japan, who defeated hosts Indonesia 3-1, in the gold medal match today.

Nitchaon, who played the third rubber in the best-of-five tie, lost to world No.7 He Binagjiao 17-21, 12-21 as the Chinese took an unbeatable 3-0 lead.

“This bronze medal is for you grandma,” Nitchaon said as she fought back tears. She added that her next goal is to win an Asian Games singles medal for the first time.

“I still have to wait for the draw tomorrow [Wednesday] but I hope to win a singles medal for the first time,” she said.

World No.4 Ratchanok Intanon lost to fifth ranked Chen Yufei 14-21 ,21-17, 17-21 in the opening singles while Jongkolphan Kititharakul and Rawinda Prajongjai fell to Chen Qingchen and Jia Yifan in the doubles 20-22, 21-16, 14-21.

Ratchanok admitted China were simply too strong.

“I think all of us did our best today. But we made too many mistakes,” said Ratchanok.

“I also would like to thank the fans who came all the way to Indonesia to cheer us on and the fans back home as well.

“I’m proud of this bronze medal. We beat Taiwan, who were a very tough opponent, in the quarter-finals. And we did our best today but China were just too strong.”