PARIS: National women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah hope their achievement of advancing to the semi-finals of the 2024 Paris Olympics can inspire other ‘younger players’ to challenge for greater success.
Their historic journey at the 2024 Paris Olympics ended without a medal after losing 11-21, 11-21 to the world number four pair from Japan, Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida in the bronze medal playoff at the Porte de La Chapelle Arena, here today.
However, earlier, Peary-Thinaah, who were drawn in the group of death, recovered from a loss to world number one Chen Qing Chen-Jia Yi Fan in the first action of Group A to create a stunning victory over Japanese pair Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara and Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Silva Ramadhanti from Indonesia.
Yesterday, they again lost to Qing Chen-Yi Fan in the semi-finals after appearing as the country’s first women’s doubles team to the best four round, eclipsing Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei, who advanced to the quarter-finals at the 2016 Rio Olympics.
Speaking to Bernama after the bronze medal match, Thinaah held back tears and said that at first many did not believe they could reach this level, after inconsistent performances since the beginning of the year.
“I think this is still a good achievement and we should be proud and hope that this gives our juniors the believe that anything is possible. For us to reach this level, I think we also have to praise ourselves as well, we can’t be giving negativity for ourselves, we take the positives and move on.
“Both of us wanted to win the medal. But at this point, it is about mental and absorbing pressure, they pushed us hard and played aggressively. It takes time to digest this, so we want to take this opportunity to spend time with family and friends who are here,” she said.
Meanwhile, Pearly who was also in tears said that they were unable to match the greatness of Matsuyama-Shida in today’s action.
“They are very aggressive, fast and controlled the entire game today, we tried many various strategies to overcome but it was very hard to even take one point from them. After that we were in a rush and lost patience, because we didn’t know how to win points and started making mistakes. We have to go back and train harder,” she said.
After preparing for months and sacrificing time to be with family, she wanted to calm down by spending time with her family who were also present here.
In the meantime, Qing Chen-Yi Fan, the silver winners in the last edition, subdued their friends and fellow countrywomen Liu Sheng Shu-Tang Ning 22-20, 21-15 in the final to be crowned Olympic champions in the women’s doubles competition.
