From Vikneswaran Raman
PARIS: After over a week’s wait, the Malaysian contingent finally opened their medal account at the Paris 2024 Olympics through the men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik yesterday.
On the ninth day of the Games, Aaron-Wooi Yik showcased a dramatic comeback in the bronze medal match to defeat Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen of Denmark.
The 2022 world champions, who were trailing 16-20 in the second set, managed to close a four-point deficit to force a deciding set and ultimately won 16-21, 22-20, 21-19 at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena, thereby defending the bronze they won at Tokyo 2020.
Malaysia has a chance to add to its medal tally today (Aug 5), with Lee Zii Jia set to compete in the men’s singles bronze medal match against Lakshya Sen of India.
Earlier, Zii Jia, who came on with high hopes of winning gold, had to abandon his dream after losing 14-21, 15-21 to the 2023 world champion, Kunlavut Vitidsarn of Thailand.
However, Zii Jia will need to be at his best as he faces Lakshya, who had led defending champion Viktor Axelsen twice before losing 20-22, 14-21 in another semi-final.
At Le Golf National, national golfer Gavin Kyle Green finished in 33rd place with a total score of three under par 281, tied with Paraguay’s Fabrizio Zanotti, after four rounds.
In the final round yesterday, he shot two under par 69 to improve five positions from the previous day.
Meanwhile, national road cyclist Nur Aisyah Mohamad Zubir’s debut at the Olympics ended in disappointment as she failed to finish the race along with 13 other riders.
Nur Aisyah, who is Malaysia’s first female road cyclist at the Olympics, cited cramps in both legs as the reason for her withdrawal.
At Marseille Marina, sailors Khairulnizam Mohd Afendy and Nur Shazrin Mohamad Latif are currently in 32nd place (168 penalty points) and 34th place (182 penalty points) respectively in the men’s ILCA 7 and women’s ILCA 6 single-handed dinghy events after eight races to date.
Both sailors will continue their challenge in the ninth and tenth races today, with only the top 10 advancing to the medal round on Tuesday. – BERNAMA-ANADOLU
