Junior shuttlers end up empty-handed at Asian C'ships
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia endured a disappointing campaign in the Asian Junior Championships after the shuttlers failed to win any medals.
Dania Sofea Zaidi-Low Zi Yu, who were the country's best hope for a medal, could not get past China's Cao Zihan-Chen Fan Shutian in the girls' doubles quarter-finals, losing 19-21, 12-21 in Solo, Indonesia yesterday.
The defeat was a bitter pill to swallow for Dania-Zi Yu, who captured silver in the World Junior Championships last year and have emerged as one of the most promising doubles pairs in the country.
It was also heartbreak in the mixed doubles for Dania and Datu Anif Isaac and Loh Ziheng-Nuraqilah Maisarah Ramdan.
Anif-Dania were on course for a win over China's Chen Junting-Zihan after narrowly winning the first game 23-21 but could not maintain their form and lost 7-21, 13-21 in the next two games.
Earlier, Malaysian Junior International Challenge champions Ziheng-Nuraqilah also could not raise their game against Indonesia's Ikhsan Pramudya-Rinjani Nastine and suffered an 18-21, 12-21 defeat in 39 minutes.
The defeats were especially painful as reaching the last four will have guaranteed at least a bronze.
The shuttlers also missed out on a medal in the mixed team event after losing to eventual champions China in the quarter-finals.
The poor outing was a far cry from last year's edition where Malaysia won a silver through Aaron Tai-Kang Khai Xing (boys' doubles), and three bronzes through Ong Xin Yee-Carmen Ting (girls' doubles) Siti Zulaikha Azmi (girls' singles) and the mixed team.
The junior coaches have to urgently raise the standards of their charges before the World Junior Championships from Oct 6-19 in Guwahati, India.
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