Chin up: Women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah are being consoled by coach Rexy Mainaky after their defeat to Japan’s world No. 4 Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida.
REXY Mainaky has nothing but pride in the women’s doubles shuttlers, although their historic run in the Paris Olympics ended with defeat in the bronze medal playoff match.
Pearly Tan and M. Thinaah defied the odds to become the first Malaysian women’s doubles pair to make it to the semi-finals in the Olympics before going down fighting 12-21, 21-18, 15-21 to China’s eventual gold medallists Chen Qingchen-Jia Yifan.
The world No. 12 then fell 11-21, 11-21 to Japan’s world No. 4 Nami Matsuyama-Chiharu Shida in the bronze medal decider.
Despite the loss, national coaching director Rexy was brimming with pride.
“From the group stage to the semi-finals, they played very tough matches. I’m still proud of them.
“It was just not Pearly-Thinaah’s day (in the bronze medal match). They could not break through the Japanese pair’s defence. This made them tense and they made a lot of unforced errors,” said Rexy.
The duo had been placed in the toughest group in the tournament along with Qingchen-Yifan, Japan’s former two-time champions Mayu Matsumoto-Wakana Nagahara and Indonesia’s world No. 9 Apriyani Rahayu-Siti Fadia Ramadhanti.
Pearly-Thinaah beat the Japanese and the Indonesians to reach the quarter-finals before another impressive win over South Korea’s Kim So-yeong-Kong Hee-yong in the last eight. They were also the only pair to drag Qingchen-Yifan to a deciding game in the competition.
Although disappointed to miss out on the bronze, the pair have vowed to take positives from their performance in their maiden Olympics.
“Both of us really wanted to win the bronze medal. To play in this level, it’s all about mental strength very little to to do with physical ability and tactics,” Thinaah told the Badminton World Federation (BWF).
“In that (mental) part, I have to praise the Japanese pair for doing very well. They handled the pressure well and were aggressive all the way.
“Still, this is a good achievement and we have to give ourselves credit. For us to reach this level, we have to praise ourselves as well and not keep having negative thoughts.
“We will take the positives and move on. I know a lot of people did not believe in us in the beginning.
“The main thing we can take from here is never give up and anything is possible. We hope this gives our juniors more motivation too,” said Thinaah.
Thinaah also gave a special tribute to Pearly.
“Pearly, without you, I wouldn’t be here on the biggest stage, a dream of every athlete,” said Thinaah.
“Just before the Games, you struggled with sickness and injuries. We only trained for one and half weeks before flying to France.
“I kept telling myself to stay strong even though there were times when I felt helpless without you. Even during the camp, we had our misunderstandings but all that changed when we arrived at the Games Village.
“Who would have thought that we could reach the semis from the group of death and fought until the last day of the competition. We had each other through it all.”
