Sport - Badminton   

Indian eves stumble at the last hurdle

KUALA LUMPUR, FEB. 20. Indian eves squandered a golden opportunity to qualify for the Uber Cup badminton finals for the first time in over four decades as they went down to host Malaysia 4-1 in their last league encounter of the Asia Zone preliminaries here today.

The Indian team, which had raised the hope of qualifying for the Jakarta final after its fantastic win over third seed Hong Kong, came a cropper against the young Malaysians, thereby finishing outside the top four.

Only the four semifinalists would join defending champion China and host Indonesia in the finals from the Asian continent.

The Indians received an early jolt when 1998 Commonwealth Games silver medallist Aparna Popat bit the dust, losing to Mew Choo Wong 11-9, 11-2. The top-ranked doubles pair of Shruti Kurien and Jwala Gutta surrendered meekly to Pei Tty Wong and Chin Eei Hui 15-5, 15-12.

The Indian challenge came to an end when the experienced B.R. Meenakshi, ranked 101, lost to 198-ranked Sze Mei Woon 11-9, 11-9.

The results: Women: Malaysia bt India 4-1 (Mew Choo Wong bt Aparna Popat 11-9, 11-2; Pei Tty Wong & Chin Eei Hui bt Shruti Kurien & Jwala Gutta 15-5,15-12; Sze Mei Woon bt B.R. Meenakshi 11-9, 11-9; Chew Yen Fong & Sock Ai Ooi bt Manjusha Kanwar & Fatima Nazneen 15-13,15-2; Baharum Norsyahliza lost to Trupti Murgunde 11-7, 11-6).

Men: Korea bt India 5-0 (Lee Hyun Il bt Abhin Shyam Gupta 15-7, 15-4; Lee Dong Soo & Yoo Yong Sung bt Rupesh Kumar & Markose Bristow 15-5,15-11; Shon Seung Mo bt Chetan Anand 15-7, 15-5; Kim Dong Moon & Ha Tae Kwon bt Sanave Thomas & V. Diju 15-2, 15-10; Park Tae Sang bt J.B.S. Vidyadhar 15-3, 15-5).

Playoff (5th to 8th): Hong Kong bt India 3-0 (Ng Wei bt Chetan Anand 15-5, 15-3; Augus Hariyanto bt Arvind Bhatt 15-9, 14-17, 15-7; Yohan Wirantama bt Sachin Ratti 15-1, 6-15, 15-13). Double matches not played. — PTI

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