FINALLY, a medal to cherish for Malaysia at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
National men’s doubles aces Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik clawed their way back from the brink of defeat to overcome Danes Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen 16-21, 22-20, 21-19 to clinch bronze - Malaysia’s first medal at the Paris Olympics - today.
The Malaysians, the 2022 world champions, started the match in jittery form and made many unforced errors to give away the first game in the bronze-medal playoff at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena.
Just when the world number three seemed destined for defeat, with Astrup-Rasmussen needing one point to seal victory at 20-16 in the second game, Aaron-Wooi Yik staged a miraculous escape by saving four match points to draw level at 20-20 before surging ahead to win 22-20 and forcing a deciding game.
The rubber game was another nail-biting affair, but the exuberant Aaron-Wooi Yik, showing incredible determination, overcame the challenge from the world number two to defend the bronze they won at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
In Tokyo 2020, Aaron-Wooi Yik defeated former world champions Mohamad Ahsan-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia to bring home the bronze medal.
In Paris, Aaron-Woo Yik missed out on a chance to fight for gold after going down fighting 19-21, 21-15, 17-21 world number one Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang of China in the semi-final on Friday (Aug 2).
The Malaysian badminton camp had previously delivered two silvers and two bronzes at the Olympics since the sport was introduced at the 1992 edition in Barcelona.
Datuk Razif Sidek-Datuk Seri Jalani Sidek got the ball rolling in the 1992 edition in Barcelona with a bronze medal before Datuk Cheah Soon Kit-Yap Kim Hock (Atlanta 1996) and Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong (Rio 2016) powered their way to the silver medals and Aaron-Wooi Yik delivered bronze in Tokyo 2020.
