KUALA LUMPUR: Men's doubles pair Javen Choong and Wong Qi Shen did Malaysia proud after winning a historic bronze medal at the Asian Table Tennis Championships in Kazakhstan yesterday.
The unheralded duo, ranked No. 187 in the world, defeated South Korea's Jang Woo-jin-Cho Dae-seong 11-9, 10-12, 13-11, 11-6 in the round-of-16 before going on to pull off what was arguably the upset of the tournament.
They faced China's world No. 1 pair of Lin Shidong-Lin Gaoyuan in the quarterfinals and dug deep before clinching an 11-8, 2-11, 0-11, 11-8, 11-7 shock win over the outright favourites.
Javen-Qi Shen's campaign, however, came to an end in the semi-finals where they lost to Singapore's Koen Pang-Izaac Quek (world No.16) 11-8, 11-3, 11-5.
They nevertheless walked away as joint-bronze medallists alongside Japan's Shunsuke Togami-Hiroto Shinozuka. The latter had lost to Lim Jong-hoon-An Jae-hyun (South Korea) in their semi-final.
It was the first time Malaysia had won a non-team event medal at the Asian Championships.
Their feat ended a 54-year wait for a medal at the Asian meet. Malaysia previously won the women's team bronze in 1968 and men's team bronze in 1970.
National team coach Beh Lee Wei praised the pairs' performances in Astana, however, stressed that they still have much room for improvement.
"To be honest, I did not expect them to achieve what they have. They really played fearlessly," said Lee Wei today.
"They were not afraid of the China pair and did well to capitalise on the big points, they were also solid against the Koreans.
"Their confidence, however, was not at the level we were hoping for against the Singapore pair and found themselves outplayed. This is something we have to work on."
Jong-hoon-Jae-hyun went on to win the men's doubles gold after beating Koen-Izaac 11-6, 11-6, 11-6 in the final.
Qi Shen had earlier yesterday lost 11-7, 11-5, 8-11, 11-8 to Japan's Tomokazu Harimoto in the men's singles round-of-32.