Badminton: Wei Sheng In The Semis, Sonya On The Way Home

SINGAPORE, Aug 17(Bernama)-- Loh Wei Sheng is into the semi-finals and is on the verge of writing a new chapter for Malaysian badminton.

A place in the last four of the boy's singles in the Youth Olympic Games (YOG) puts the 17-year old Bukit Jalil Sports School student within striking distance of a medal and could possibly play himself into the record books.

Victory over Singapore's Huang Chao in their quarter-final match Tuesday night in scores of 21-18,21-16 before an estimated 4,000 Indoor Stadium crowd has confirmed his ticket into the last four where he will play Thailand's Poodchalat Pisit later Tuesday night.

And a win against the Thai No 1 junior would mean a silver medal at the very least and even a loss would give him a second bite at the cherry with a bronze at stake.

But it wasn't easy for Wei Sheng Tuesday night. The noisy crowd weren't cheering for him and to make matters worse, he had a nervous start before he managed to pull himself together to ease past the finish line in 34 minutes.

"I was so nervous tonight. And I couldn't give my best. Infact this was my worst performance since the tournament began. I made a lot of mistakes and luckily my opponent made even more.

"I must lift my game tomorrow against the Thai player if I want to stay in the game. He is a better player I admit," said Wei Sheng.

The Thai ace beat the Chinese No 3 seed Huang Yuan 21-16,21-19.

The other semi-final will pit the No 1 seed Kang Ji Wook of South Korea who beat Indonesia's Evert Sukamta 21-11,14-21, 21-13 to set up a clash against India's Haseena Sunil Kumar Wednesday. The Indian player beat Taiwan's Hsieh Feng Tse 21-13,18-21,24-22 in their quarter-final clash.

But it was the end for Sonya Cheah.

The Malaysian lass was beaten by Thailand's Sapsiree Teeratanachai 15-21,16-21in their quarter-final match and any hopes of a medal disappeared into the night.

"I made too many unforced errors. No excuses for my defeat. My opponent deserve the victory," said Sonya.

The Thai shuttler will now play Vietnam's Vu Thi Trang in the semis Tuesday while the other semi-final will see Great Britain's Sarah Milne take on China's Deng Xuan, the highest seed remaining in the championship at No 5.

Deng beat Spain's Marin Carolina 21-12,21-19 Tuesday night while Sarah overcame the Dutch girl Josephine Wentholt 21-15,21-8 in their quarter-final matches.

Source from BERNAMA

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