Asian Para Games: Malaysian Cheah Retains Badminton Singles Title

INCHEON (South Korea), Oct 23 (Bernama) -- Despite lack of training, badminton SU5 men's singles badminton defending champion Cheah Liek Hou of Malaysia was till able to defend his title at the Gyeyang Gymnasium here Thursday. Cheah retained the gold medal after beating Indonesian, Oddie Kurnia Dwi Listyanto 21-8 and 21-11 in the final. "I am thankful at being able to retain the title in Incheon after the same festival in Guangzhou. I did not train much due to work commitment. "I should have trained three times a week but I could only attend on Saturdays," he told reporters. Cheah said he immediately endeavoured to get used to the court and to conserve his energy to ensure a win, upon his arrival at Incheon. Not only did he retain his singles title, Cheah and partner Suhaili Laiman also defended the SL3-4/SU5 men's doubles title. The national pair had to work hard to beat their opponents Raj Kumar and Rakesh Pandey 11-21, 21-11 and 21-13. Commenting on the match today, Suhaili said they started out rather slowly and the opponents took advantage of it by putting up a stiff fight in the first set. "Although, I managed to train for only a month, it has borne fruit," said Suhaili, who will retire after his Games because of his age. Suhaili, 52, started partnering Cheah 12 years ago. On another development, the national wheelchair basketball squad only managed sixth spot at the 2014 Para Asia in Incheon, South Korea here, Thursday. Malaysia lost to Taiwan 45-72 in the decider for fifth and sixth spot of the championship at the Samsan World Gymnasium. Chief coach, Lim Ming Lip said the national basketball squad did not perform well this time. "Malaysia lost..overall Malaysia are sixth out of 10 nations. Taiwan played quite well today as they managed to check our players' advance. "Much of the movements of our key players such as Muhamad Khairul Azman Mohd Khairi, Freday Tan Yei Bing and Ahmad Nazri Hamzah were blocked by the opponents. Our players also made many mistakes," he told Bernama here. During the first match of the event, Malaysia beat Hong Kong 52-36 followed with a 62-58 win over Kuwait in the third match. But Malaysia lost to Iran 84-44 in the second match and Thailand 42-37 in the fourth match. "Although, we lost to Taiwan and are in sixth position,but to me as coach, we have met the target and had improved on our ninth spot at (the) Goungzhou (Asian Games)," he said. Lim said he wanted to prepare more intensive training for the paralympic squad in preparation for the Asean Para Games in Singapore next year, after the Incheon Games ended. --BERNAMA