BEYOND THE TOP SPORTS
(A Look At The Men's Badminton Team)
By Naveen Kanagalingam
Picture by John Heng in Vientiane
While athletes in Team Singapore's top sports like Shooting, Table Tennis and Swimming get the limelight, their teammates in other sports have also been hard at work at the SEA Games here in Vientiane. We track the efforts of our athletes in Badminton.
Singapore Vs Malaysia
The men's Badminton team did exceptionally well when they beat Vietnam in the quarter finals 3- 2. Unfortunately they found Malaysia too strong in the semi-finals and lost 0-3. In the first singles match, Derek Wong had no answers against Muhammad Hafiz. In the first doubles, Henri K Saputra and Hendra Wijaya, playing against Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong, lost the first set. Singapore then pulled out in the second set due to an injury incurred by Hendri. In the second singles, Ashton Chen tired his best but could not cope with Kuan Beng Hong.
Young Players
Assessing the team's performance, Edwin Pang, CEO of the Singapore Badminton Association, said, "Losing to Malaysia is nothing to be ashamed of and our boys went down fighting." While noting that the team could have done better, he said,"Our players are very young and they did show a lot of potential. Give them three or four years and they will most definitely deliver results."