Pearly-Thinaah one step away from gold, home duo stun Aaron-Wooi Yik

BIRMINGHAM – Top national women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah moved one step closer to landing their maiden gold medal on a day men’s doubles aces Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik threw away their chance when the dust settled in the semi-finals of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games here today.

World number 11 Pearly-Thinaah downed India’s Treesa Jolly-Gaytri Gopichand Pullela 21-13, 21-6 to set up a title showdown against Chloe Birch-Lauren Smith after the English pair ousted Australia’s Gronya Somerville-Wendy Chen Hsuan-Yu 21-14, 24-22 in the other semi-final.

Pearly-Thinaah will be looking to ensure that the women’s doubles gold medal stays with Malaysia following Chow Mei Kuan-Vivian Hoo’s triumph in the 2018 edition in Gold Coast, Australia.

Pearly-Thinaah’s victory certainly brought cheers to the national badminton camp as national rising star Ng Tze Yong had earlier come from behind to oust India’s Kidambi Srikanth 13-21, 21-19, 21-10 to reach the men’s singles final.

However, any hopes of a triple treat were dashed when Aaron-Wooi Yik were stunned 21-18, 17-21, 4-21 by England’s Ben Lane-Sean Vendy in the men’s doubles semi-final.

Despite winning the first game, Aaron-Wooi Yik have only themselves to blame for a disappointing show in the second game before completely capitulating in the decider.

It was a sad ending for Malaysia’s men’s doubles players when Chan Peng Soon-Tan Kian Meng then went down 6-21, 15-21 to India’s top duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty.

While Peng Soon admitted that the Indian pair brought out their A-game, Kian Meng vowed to give his best to try and win the bronze medal against Aaron-Wooi Yik.

It was a day of double blow to Kian Meng as he also lost in the mixed doubles semi-final when he and Lai Pei Jing went down fighting 23-25, 18-21 to Singapore’s Hee Yong Kai Terry-Jessica Wei Han Tan.

Kian Meng-Pei Jing will take on Scotland’s Adam Hall-Julie Macpherson for the bronze medal.

The bronze medal matches will begin at 5pm local time today (12am August 8 Malaysian time). – Bernama, August 7, 2022