FORMER world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik produced the comeback of their lifetime to clinch their second consecutive Olympic bronze medal in a thrilling men’s doubles playoff at the Adidas Arena in Port de la Chapelle today.
Ranked No. 3, Aaron-Soh fought gallantly to beat Denmark’s world No. 2 Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen with a scoreline of 16-21, 22-20, 21-19 in the Paris Olympics.
This victory not only added to the bronze medal they won at the Tokyo Olympics four years ago but it also gave Malaysia its first medal in the Paris Olympics, bringing much-needed cheer to the nation.
Losing the first game 16-21 and trailing 16-20 in the second, nobody would have given them a ghost of a chance against the Danes, who were holding match point.
Unbelievably, Aaron-Soh fought with every ounce of their energy to win six points in a row, securing the second game 22-20.
In the rubber game, Aaron-Soh played like men possessed to take an 11-7 lead, then stretched it to 14-8 and 17-12.
Astrup and Rasmussen hit back by scoring six straight points to lead 18-17, keeping supporters from both sides on the edge of their seats.
However, Aaron-Soh kept their cool under pressure to regain the lead 19-18, then dropped a point, and then went on to secure the last two vital points for a 22-20 victory.
It was certainly the great comeback in the second game that gave the spectators their money’s worth.
Before the match, Aaron-Soh held a slight advantage, having beaten Astrup-Rasmussen in seven of their past 11 meetings.
Their bronze medal gave Malaysia its 15th Olympic medal, 11 in badminton, two in diving and two in cycling. However, no Malaysian athlete has ever won a gold medal since the country took part in the Olympic Games 68 years ago in Melbourne in 1956.
Malaysia has so far secured six silver medals and four bronze medals in the Olympic badminton through (Datuk) Lee Chong Wei (3 silvers), Cheah Soon Kit-Yap Kim Hock (1 silver), Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong (1 silver) and Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying (1 silver), Rashid Sidek (1 bronze), Razif-Jalani Sidek (1 bronze), and Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik (2 bronzes).
Aaron-Soh’s victory made up for the disappointment of the Malaysian team following the defeat of Pearly Tan-Thinaah Muralitharan to Japanese pair Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida in the mixed doubles bronze medal playoff.
Aaron-Soh were so happy that they hit a few shuttles to the spectators’ area to thank them for their support.
Malaysia still has another hope for a bronze medal when singles player Lee Zii Jia takes on India’s 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games gold medallist Lakshya Sen after both lost their semi-final matches.
In the subsequent men’s doubles final match, Lee Yang-Wang Chi-lin of Chinese Taipei captured the gold medal by beating world No. 1 Liang Wei Keng-Wang Chang of China 21-17, 18-21, 21-19.
Story and pix by K.H. Ong