Zii Jia gets off to a cracking start
Published on: Monday, July 26, 2021
By: Bernama
Zii Jia hits a shot to Artem Pochtarov.
TOKYO: National men’s singles ace Lee Zii Jia got his maiden Olympic outing off to a cracking start with an emphatic 21-5, 21-11 win over Ukraine’s Artem Pochtarov in his opening Group M tie at the Musashino Forest Sport Plaza here on Sunday.The 23-year-old Zii Jia, who is ranked eighth in the world, was in sizzling form as he turned on the style with his deft flicks and deadly smashes to brush aside his opponent in just 25 minutes.ADVERTISEMENT
Zii Jia was clearly a class above in the first game, trouncing the world number 98 Ukrainian 21-5 in just nine minutes before wrapping up the second game with a 21-11 win.
The Kedah-born Zii Jia, who won the All England title in March and is the country’s medal hopeful at the Tokyo Olympics, will next face Frenchman Brice Leverdez in his second Group M match.
Meanwhile, it’s the end of the road for national women’s doubles pair Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean after they lost their second straight Group A match on Sunday night.
They went down fighting 21-17, 15-21, 8-21 to Japan’s world number one pair of Sayaka Hirota-Yuki Fukushima after battling for 84 minutes.ADVERTISEMENT
The Malaysians had, on Saturday (July 24) gone down 14-21, 17-21 to Indonesians Greysia Polii-Apriyani Rahayu in their opening group match.
Mei Kuan-Meng Yean will wrap up their Group A fixtures against England’s Chloe Birch-Lauren Smith next.
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Only the top two pairs from each group will advance to the last eight.
Meanwhile, national mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying produced an error-filled performance on Sunday to fall to their second straight Group D loss that virtually puts an end to their medal hopes at the Tokyo Olympics.
The pair, who won the silver medal at the 2016 Rio Games, took to the court Sunday knowing they had to beat Germans Mark Lamfuss-Isabel Herttrich, but nothing seemed to work for the Malaysians as they fell 12-21, 15-21.
The Malaysians’ error-filled performance handed the world number 15 Germans easy points as they wrapped up the proceedings in just 41 minutes.
Having lost 18-21, 21-10, 16-21 to Hong Kong’s Tang Chun Man-Tse Ying Suet on Saturday, world number seven Peng Soon-Liu Ying are now as good as out of the running for a place in the quarter-finals.
Peng Soon-Liu Ying are set to face world number two Wang Yilyu-Huang Dongping of China in their final group match on Monday (July 26).
In sailing, national sailor Nur Shazrin Mohamad Latif enjoyed an excellent Race One before being blown off course in Race Two of the women’s Laser Radial event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics at the Enoshima Yacht Harbour in Fujisawa, near here, Sunday.
The 2018 Asian Games bronze medallist, however, can walk tall as she is currently in 11th spot overall, with eight more races to go.
The 23-year-old did superbly in Race One to finish third behind Spain’s Cristina Pujol Bajo and Greek sailor Vasileia Karachaliou.
The Malaysian, however, could not repeat her earlier feat in Race Two, which had to be temporarily halted due to bad weather, and ended up 25th out of 44 sailors.
Germany’s Svenja Weger came out tops in Race Two, followed by Elena Vorobeva of Crotia and Line Flem Hoest of Norway.
Nur Shazrin is definitely on the right track as the top 10 sailors after all 10 races will advance to the medal round.
The Malaysian, who is making her second Olympic appearance after the 2016 Rio edition, is scheduled to continue racing on Monday (July 26).
Youth and Sports Minister Datuk Seri Reezal Merican Naina Merican tweeted his congratulations to Nur Shazrin, who hails from Pasir Gudang, Johor, and said that he was proud of her achievement.
Meanwhile, national swimmer Phee Jinq En splashed her way to a new national record in the women’s 100-metre (m) breaststroke event in Heat Two of the event at the Tokyo Olympics here.
Jinq En clocked 1:08.40 seconds (s) to erase her own previous mark of 1:08.50s, which she did en route to bagging the gold medal at the 2019 SEA Games in Manila, the Philippines.
The 23-year-old Jinq En finished Sunday’s Heat Two race at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in second spot behind Slovakia’s Andrea Podmanikova (1:08.36s). Tilali Scanlan of American Samoa (1:10.01s) was third.
However, her time was still not fast enough for Jinq En to be placed among the top 16 swimmers to advance to the semi-finals, which will be held on Monday (July 26). The 23-year-old Jinq En ended up 29th out of 43 competitors in the overall ranking.
Jinq En still has one more shot at going further in the Tokyo Olympics as she is set to feature in the women’s 200m breaststroke event on Wednesday (July 28).
Meanwhile, Welson set his own season’s best in the men’s 200m freestyle despite making an early exit from the Tokyo Olympics.
He clocked 1:49.24s to finish seventh in Sunday’s Heat Two, which was won by Romanian David Popovici (1:45.32s). Serbia’s Velimir Stjepanovic (1:46.26s) was second and Germany’s Jacob Heidtmann (1:46.73s) third. The 24-year-old Sarawakian finished 32nd out of 39 swimmers in the overall ranking.Stay up-to-date by following Daily Express’s Telegram channel.
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The top 16 swimmers will now battle it out in the semi-finals on Monday (July 26).
On Saturday (July 24), Welson failed to make the cut for the men’s 400m freestyle final after clocking 3:58.25s to finish 33rd out of 36 swimmers in the overall ranking.