Careless V Shem Left To Rue Costly Mistake

JAKARTA: If only Goh V Shem had not served the shuttle into the net when the score was tied at 19-19 in the deciding game, it would have been a different story.

But that was what the SEA Games debutant did and the fanatical home fans in the Istora Bung Karno roared in delight.


That crucial mistake saw V Shem-Lim Khim Wah let slip a golden opportunity to upstage former Olympic and world champions Markis Kido-Hendra Setiawan of Indonesia, going down 13-21, 21-17, 19-21 in 46 minutes in the semi-finals.

With the defeat, V Shem-Khim Wah had to be satisfied with a bronze medal to go along with the silver they won in the team event after losing to Indonesia in the final.

The 22-year-old V Shem was disappointed that he muffed it up.

“We had a good chance but we blew it today. If only I had been more careful. I will polish up this area of my game,” said V Shem.

The game started horribly for the Malaysians. They were clearly off-colour and made far too many mistakes to allow Markis-Hendra to take the opener with an easy 21-13 win.

“We started slow but, fortunately, we managed to get our game going. In fact, we held a good 10-6 lead in the decider and did well to hold them off until the closing stages,” said Khim Wah, who seemed pleased with the way they handled the pressure from the crowd.

“It was so noisy we could not even hear what our coach (Tan Kim Her) was saying. We did not let them intimidate us. We lost because of our own mistakes.”

With Khim Wah-V Shem’s defeat, there will be no Malaysian representative in any of the individual events.

But Indonesia will be going for a clean sweep of all five gold medals. They are already assured of two after they made it an all-Indonesian final in the men’s and women’s doubles.

In the men’s singles, Taufik Hidayat failed to clear his hurdle after losing 14-21, 16-21 to Thai youngster Tanongsak Saensom-boonsuk, who will take on Indonesia’s Simon Santoso today.

In the women’s singles, Adrianti Ratnasari will face Singapore’s Fu Mingtian, who ended the gallant run of Thailand’s teen sensation Inthanon Ratchanok.

Tantowi Ahmad-Lilyana Natsir are the favourites when they face Thailand’s Sudket Prapakamol-T. Saralee in the mixed doubles final.