Malaysia's girls enjoy fairy-tale run
Malaysia's girls enjoy fairy-tale run
Moch. N. Kurniawan, The Jakarta Post, Jakarta
No one expected the Malaysian girls' team would defy the odds
to reach the team final of the 8th Asian Junior Badminton
Championship here this week.
In a fairy-tale string of upsets, including defeating Japan
and heavily favored South Korea by identical 3-0 scores, the
under-19 team went all the way to the final.
It was too much for them to be expected to defeat defending
champions China, and they went down without winning a match on
Wednesday.
But singles players Norsyahliza Baharum, Julia Wong Pei Xian
and Lydia Cheah Li-Ya and doubles teams Ng Hui Lin/Chong Sook
Chin and Haw Chiou Hwee/Julia Wong became crowd favorites after
Indonesia's teams lost in the last four in the boys and girls
events.
"They're good, huh?" spectator Ahmad Zaenuddin said.
"Unfortunately our girls cannot do the same."
With Malaysia trailing 2-0 in the final, local fans threw
their support behind Lydia, who fought to the end against China's
Tai Yi, coming back from being blanked in the first game to force
a decider, before running out of energy.
In general, the Malaysians played a sharp attack and strong
defense, but were let down by unforced errors.
The country is known for its excellent men's players, both in
singles and doubles, but its women have rarely made headlines.
"Usually we lost to Japan and Korea, but now we can beat
them," Malaysian head coach Rashid Sidek said. "We have a good
talent in this year's squad, something that is very rare to
happen in Malaysia."
Most of the team is from the Bukit Jalil Sports Academy.
"So most of them study in the morning and play badminton in
the evening," said Rashid, the winner of the 1996 Olympic men's
singles bronze.
He said that there was no specific training program for the
Asian junior championship because the players already possesed
good talent.
"We have had good success this year and we are lucky we
have talented players who have a great future in the world
rankings."
He was thankful to Bukit Jalil for its nationwide talent
scouting program, modeled on Ragunan Sports Academy in South
Jakarta. The latter produced several notable sports figures in
the 1980s and 1990s, including Susy Susanti, although it has been
beset by problems in recent years.
Rashid acknowledged that the two countries faced a similar
problem in that few girls were interested in the sport.
"You see, Indonesia once had great women shuttlers, but now
Indonesian women's team is not good anymore."