Sports Jenny on 17 Apr 2007 10:30 pm
Our heroes finally lost
Asian Badminton Championships final, how could a badminton fanatic like me miss watching it live? Live on TV, not on Johor, to be exact. The games started on Sunday, 2pm sharp.Out of the 5 final events: Mix doubles, Women’s Singles, Men’s Singles, Women’s Doubles and Men’s Doubles, I was more interested in Men’s singles where Reigning Olympic and Asian Games champion Taufik Hidayat met Chen Hong, and Men’s doubles where our hotshots Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong met Lee Wan Wah and Chong Tan Fook.
Taufik Hidayat walked away with the Asian Badminton Championships title for the third time with an easy 21-18, 21-19 win over an injured Chen Hong of China in the men’s singles final yesterday.
I learnt that our National doubles coach Rexy Mainaky was very unhappy with Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong’s performance in the semi finals game the previous day. Rexy said that was the worst performance by Koo and Tan after they struggled past Taiwan’s Tsai Chia-hsin-Hu Chung-hsien.
So, I hope they can play a better game in the finals on Sunday just like they performed in Swiss Open and All England last month. Having gained celebrity and national hero status after winning three of the four Super Series titles: the Malaysian Open, All-England and Swiss Open, the duo came here as the hot favourites to lift their fourth international title for the year. But, they really dissappointed everyone.
I can’t believe what I have seen, they really played their worst ever game. What happened to Koo Kien Keat? He did a lot of mistakes! I think their game play was different compared to how they played in the Swiss Open and All England. Instead of keeping the shuttle cock low and put more pressure on their opponent by attacking, they kept returning high for Lee Wan Wah and Chong Tan Fook to smash. Play defence?
Yesterday, an erratic Kien Keat allowed the Tan Fook-Wan Wah combination to score points quite easily to take the first game at 21-14 after leading 13-7.
But Kien Keat-Boon Heong managed to find their rhythm to force the rubber. In the decider, Tan Fook-Wan Wah upped their tempo and never looked back after leading 5-1 to take the initiative.
Anyway, the defeat maybe is good for them. Do you think so? Hope they can learn from the defeat and play better in the next tournament in Singapore next month.
More related reads here.