MANILA: Badminton mixed doubles pair, Goh Soon Huat and Shevon Lai Jemie missed the best chance of ending a 20-year gold medal drought after losing 1-2 to the Indonesian pair of Praveen Jordan/Jasmine Daeva Oktavianti in the final at the 30th SEA Games, today.
Fighting tooth and nail all the way, the national mixed pair finally had to contend with retaining their silver medal for the second consecutive edition after making their debut on home soil two years ago.
The last time Malaysia won a mixed double god in the SEA Games was at the 1999 Brunei edition through Chew Choon Eng and Chor Hooi Yee.
At the event held at the Muntinlupa Sports Complex, here, the pair started off well in the first set by picking a few early points, but the fifth world ranked Indonesian pair raised their game before winning the fierce battle 21-19.
The Malaysian mixed doubles pair, ranked eighth in the world however, came back stronger in the second set with more neat shots and won 21-19.
However, they failed to make it count in the deciding set, making several mistakes before going down 21-23.
“When it came to the important deciding points, they were more fortunate than us. We try to be calm and focused on getting the point but unfortunately, we could not win the game,“ Soon Huat told reporters after the match.
Meanwhile, Shevon admitted that she felt nervous when both pairs were tied at deciding match point and it affected her rhythm.
“The first set, I was not really in the game yet, the second and third I think I got the rhythm, the crucial point I think both sides were nervous. Both side also wanted to win but I think on that part, they did better today,“ she said. — Bernama
