PETALING JAYA: Cheah Liek Hou will lead the national badminton squad’s hunt for the gold medal after defeating the home team’s competitor, Shi Shengzhou in the men’s singles event SU5 (hand disability) Group A in the Para Asian Games in Hangzhou, China today.
Liek Hou won easily 21-10, 21-7, and also increased his enthusiasm in the second match against Philippines, Dela Cruz Antonio Junior to determine the group winner.
For the men’s singles event WH1 (weak from the waist down), Ikhwan Ramli managed to score a victory through his debut action in Group B when he defeated his opponent from South Korea, Lee Samseop, 21-15, 21-16.
Interesting about the meeting of the two players, Ikhwan, created a winning record for the third time and only lost once in four clashes against the experienced Korean player.
The 31-year-old athlete is scheduled to meet host Qi Zi Mo in the second match of the group stage, today.
The team manager, Woon Sze Mei said, overall the quality of the game can still be improved and the players need to increase their confidence so that there is no room for error for the opponent to grab points.
“For Ikhwan, I can say that the match against Samseop was very good because it was against a very good player, requiring agility on the court.
“Ikhwan and Samseop have met four times on the international stage, and this is also the second time that Ikhwan has performed at the Para Asian Games.
“As for Cheah, he has met Shengzhou before and for me the performance of the Chinese player is much better than him. But the good thing about Cheah is that he is quick to analyze the opponent’s weaknesses, so he is able to control the game,” he said Utusan Malaysia.
Besides Liek Hou and Ikhwan, Malaysia is also represented by Noor Azwan Noorlan who will meet the Japanese contestant, Makoto Takumi in the WH2 category, as well as Mohd. Amin Burhanuddin who will meet in the SL4 category (opponent not yet determined). – MESSENGER
2023-10-21 12:27:00
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