PARIS: The national para-badminton camp is just one step away from making history after Cheah Liek Hou and Fareez Anuar stormed into the semi-finals of the men's singles SU5 (physical impairment) category at the Paris Paralympic Games on Saturday.
Liek Hou, the Tokyo 2020 gold medallist, downed Indonesia's Suryo Nugroho 21-10, 21-13 to top Group A and, thus, avoid a semi-final clash against teammate Fareez, who topped Group B.
Today's semi-final draw pitted LIek Hou against Group B runner-up Dheva Anrimusthi of Indonesia in a rematch of the Tokyo 2020 final, which the Malaysian won 21-17, 21-15.
Fareez, meanwhile, will take on Suryo after the world number five finished second behind Liek Hou in Group A.
Based on the head-to-head records of the semi-finalists, both Malaysian para shuttlers have a slight advantage, with Liek Hou having emerged triumphant eight times in 15 meetings against Anrimusthi and Fareez winning five times and losing thrice to Suryo.
Although they have faced each other quite often, Liek Hou feels that he will still need to analyse video clips of world number three Anrimusthi's matches to draw up an effective strategy and ensure he can make back-to-back finals in the Paralympics.
He was also pleased to see Fareez making the semi-finals and is keeping his fingers crossed that they can make it an all-Malaysian final.
"We train, eat and sleep together at the National Sports Council in Bukit Jalil. I saw how hard Fareez trained ahead of Paris 2024," said Liek Hou.
Apart from his win over Suryo, Liek Hou began his campaign with a convincing 21-10, 21-6 win over Poland's Mroz Bartlomiej on Thursday (Aug 29) and followed it up with another impressive victory, disposing of home shuttler Meril Loquette 21-10, 21-16 yesterday.
Fareez has shone brightly too, emerging unscathed from Group B, dubbed the 'Group of Death'.
He began his group campaign by stunning second-seeded Fang Jen Yu of Taiwan 21-14, 21-18 before staging two magnificent victories over defeating Anrimusthi (14-21, 21-19, 21-19) and Japan's Taiyo Imai (17-21, 21-17, 21-17).
National boccia player Noor Askuzaimey Mat Salim also stole the show on the third day of the Paris Paralympics when she trounced Greece's Chrisy Morfi Metzou 7-0 at the South Paris Arena 1 to set up a semi-final date against Hong Kong's Cheung Yuen.
There was no such joy at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome, with both Malaysian riders crashing out in the qualifying round of the men's 1,000-metre time trial C1-3 (physical impairment) category.
Yusof Hafizi Shaharuddin came in eighth in 1 minute 09.487 seconds while Adi Raimie Amizazahan clocked 1:13.780s to finish 11th.