C'wealth Games: Paddlers Chew and Li's mixed doubles campaign ends

Singapore's local-born paddlers Clarence Chew and Isabelle Li ended their debut Commonwealth Games campaign yesterday with a straight-games loss in their mixed doubles tie.

They were defeated 5-11, 8-11, 9-11 by Canada's Eugene Wang and Zhang Mo in the fourth round at Glasgow's Scotstoun Sports Campus.

Despite the defeat, Chew, 18, and Li, 19, will leave the Games with a gold medal each, as they helped the Republic's men's and women's teams to triumphs in their respective competitions.

Another Singapore mixed doubles pair, Li Hu and Yu Mengyu, also crashed out in the same round yesterday, losing to England duo Danny Reed and Kelly Sibley 7-11, 8-11, 9-11.

Said Reed after the victory: "We are absolutely buzzing as we were not expected to win as Singapore are a top-four team (in the world).

"We put a lot of hard work into training over the past month and for it to come together like this, all that hard work was worth it. "Once we got the lead, we carried the momentum and didn't let them in."

Despite the two losses, Singapore still has two mixed doubles pairs in the quarter-finals.

Zhan Jian and Feng Tianwei defeated Nigeria's Quadri Aruna and Olufunke Oshonaike 13-11 11-6 11-6, before Gao Ning and Lin Ye edged out India's Anthony Arputharaj and M.S. Patkar in a thrilling 7-11, 11-3, 12-10, 7-11, 11-4 tie.

The men's doubles third round proved to be a better hunting ground for Singapore.

Gao and Li Hu saw off the challenge of Malaysia's Asraf Haiqal and Shakirin Ibrahim 15-13, 11-6, 11-8, while Yang Zi and Zhan Jian also beat Trinidad and Tobago's Dexter St Louis/Curtis Humphreys 12-10, 11-7, 11-5.

In the women's singles third round, Singapore's top player and world No. 4 Feng suffered a jolt when she lost her second game to 36-year-old Australian Zhenhua Dederko but eventually managed to overcome her rival 11-9, 7-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-8.

Yu overcame her disappointment in her mixed doubles loss by beating India's Shamini Kumaresan 9-11, 11-5, 16-14, 11-4, 11-9.

meng@sph.com.sg

This article was published on Aug 1 in The Straits Times.

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