Defending men's doubles champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik rued their costly mistakes after crashing out of the Badminton Asia Championships which meant Malaysia returned home without a medal in five years.
Since 2022, the country had always returned with a medal starting with Lee Zii Jia who won the men’s singles title.
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Men’s doubles pairs Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi and Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin took home silver medals in the next two years, before Chia-Soh won it in style without dropping a game last year.
But costly mistakes in their quarter-finals against South Korean pair Kang Min-hyuk-Ki Dong-ju left the Malaysians exiting early after a 13-21, 28-26, 13-21 setback.
“We made too many unforced errors in the third game. In the first game, we were leading but made mistakes at the crucial moments,” admitted Chia.
A back injury to Pearly Tan meant she and M.Thinaah also exited the competition that is of a Super 1000 level after losing in straight games to their Chinese opponents.
“I felt the same feeling as my previous injury after yesterday’s match. I definitely went all out, but it was still bothering me. I started to feel it halfway through the match,” said Tan.
With reigning mixed doubles world champions Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei also crashing out on Friday, it meant all the national top pairs lost on the same day to leave Ningbo, China on a forgettable note.
