RIO DE JANEIRO: Shuttlers Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying are one match away from winning Olympic gold after beating China’s Chen Xu-Ma Jin to qualify for the mixed doubles final on Monday.
The Malaysians won 21-12, 21-19 against the 2012 London Olympics silver medallists in 45 minutes.
They will face Indonesia’s Tontowi Ahmad-Liliyana Natsir in Wednesday’s final.
The Indonesian pair beat China’s Zhang Nan-Zhao Yunlei, the London 2012 gold medallists, 21-16, 21-15 in their semi-final.
“We still can’t believe that we are in the final. We had dreamed of this but to have actually done it is an amazing feeling,” said Peng Soon.
“We knew we had a chance as the China pair were under as much pressure as we were. We told ourselves that we had to keep focused and minimise our mistakes.”
Liu Ying said they kept motivating each other whenever mistakes were made.
“We constantly encouraged each other as we didn’t want to fail having come so far.
“The final will be another challenge as we lost to the Indonesians in the group stage but we will prepare well and give it our best,” said Liu Ying.
BA of Malaysia acting president Tan Sri Mohamed Al-Amin Abdul Majid praised the pair for sticking to their game plan.
“The coaches had told them what to do and they followed instructions perfectly.
“We had targeted a medal from Peng Soon-Liu Ying and I am glad they lived up to expectations,” said Al-Amin, who is also the Malaysian Chef-de-Mission to the Olympics.
Malaysia will be hoping for Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong to make the men’s doubles final as they play Chai Biao-Hong Wei in the semi-finals on Tuesday.