KUALA LUMPUR: Women's doubles ace M. Thinaah is saddened by badminton's exclusion from the 2026 Glasgow Commonwealth Games as it has deprived her and Pearly Tan the chance of defending their women's doubles gold.
Pearly-Thinaah won the women's doubles title in the quadrennial games in 2022 in Birmingham.
"We are quite sad that badminton won't be held at the 2026 Commonwealth Games as we won't be able to defend our gold that we won in 2022," said Thinaah today.
"The Commonwealth Games are important and they are held every four years, but we also respect the organisers' decision," she added.
The Commonwealth Games gold was Pearly-Thinaah's biggest success at that time and it also motivated them to win the French Open later that year. The French Open title was also the biggest achievement by a Malaysian women's pair on the world tour.
Badminton may make a return to the 2030 Commonwealth Games programme. Pearly-Thinaah will be in their early 30s by then and it's up to them whether they are still hungry for another gold.