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."