Assalamualaikum and welcome to Sporty Saturday for today. I'M BACK!!! TADAIMA!!! Actually I'm planning to write this Sporty Saturday last night, but I went to Tarawih and came home late. I went straight to bed after I arrived home. Nonetheless, it's still Saturday in USA, so it is still Saturday for them. I just want to talk about our golden hope, Lee Chong Wei (LCW).

If you remember, I have wrote before that LCW don't have any pressure in this edition of Olympic despite this is maybe his last appearance in Olympic. Read it here if you forgot. But it was in Malay language. There is no high hope from Malaysian to LCW as we know that he suffer TWO major injuries before this Olympic. So, we know he might not get to play to his maximum capability. However based on the semifinal match against Chen Long, he seems okay and fired up to play in this Olympic. As I was said above, I never saw LCW so fired up, shouting and such. Usually I only saw Koo Kien Kiat did that. It show how determined LCW to grab his and Malaysia first gold medal in Olympic. He will play against the same opponent last 4 years also in the final, Lin Dan from China, his arch-nemesis. Lets just keep hoping Dato' LCW will succeed this time.


As for Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong, I also manage to watch their match yesterday. But, they're to slow to build up their pace and lost easily in the first set. Second set was much better, but still the Chinese pair was much superior than them. I hope they didn't lose their focus and winning their bronze medal match this evening, 4 pm Malaysian time.

I end this entry with the list of Malaysian athletes who in action for today. Courtesy of Berita Harian Online

Badminton:
Men Single Final:
Lee Chong Wei (MAS) vs Lin Dan (CHN)
[8pm Malaysia/1pm London]

Men Double Bronze:
Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong (MAS) vs Chung Jae Sung/Lee Yong Dae (KOR)
[4pm Malaysia/9am London]

Athletics:
Women's 400m Hurdles (Round 1, Heat 2):
Noraseela Khalid [2am Malaysia/7pm London]

Men's High Jump (Group A Qualification):
Lee Hup Wei [2am Malaysia/7pm London]

With that, see you later,
Hasta luego,
Mata ne,
Wassalam.

from,
K-tea

Assalamualaikum and welcome to today "Sporty Saturday". Actually, it's Sunday already here but I'm honestly start to feel lazy to write nowadays. I'm skipping yesterday "Berkat Jumaat", I'm not yet write anything from EURO 2012 quarter final matches. It's because I will be gone for a while from this blog. But I hope I'm not too away from the blog. You know, some "unsettled business" to be done. So maybe I'll skip a few days because of my commitment. Nonetheless, lets make it fast.

You know there is Singapore Open this week? Perhaps you don't know much because there are not many superstars playing in that tournament. Unfortunately, none of our players manage to go through final. Not even Hafiz Hashim. I know that is not a surprise anymore. There is one representative from Malaysia that manage to go to the semi final. The number one mixed double pair in Malaysia, Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying. They are the 3rd seeded in the tournament. They lost to the 2nd seeded in the tournament which are the same opponent they lost in the Australia Open earlier this year. Comparing the two matches, this time they lost quite easily to the Chinese Taipei pair. Don't know what's their problem.

Despite of that unfortunate event, there were some upset that some players made. Especially from the single male player. I give you two of them. Chong Wei Feng (picture above) won against Taufik Hidayat in a straight set. And Liew Daren won against the 2nd seeded of the tournament, Lee Hyun-Ill from Korea. However, the problem is they are not consistent. They need that to be the top players on the world. That's all. Sometime they play very well, the next day they played really bad. That is what they need to avoid.

I just watch local sports news today that Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) are planning to do a long term program, which each year 20 million will be spent on the program for 12 years. I HOPE it will be a success program. Or else, it's just a waste of money.

I think that's all for now, See you guys later, InsyaAllah.
Hasta luego,
Mata ne,
Wassalam.

from,
K-tea.

p/s: Lee Chong Wei is now not the No. 1 player in the world. Lin Dan took over right now. He's 2nd now.
pp/s: Malaysia U22 team faced Korea U22 earlier today, if only they didn't made mistakes in the first half they maybe manage to draw or win the match.

Assalamualaikum and welcome to today's "Sporty Saturday". Today will be almost the same entry as the previous week. But last week was the "Malay Week". Last week I talked about Lee Chong Wei (LCW) opportunity to win the gold medal in Olympic. Well quite frankly, his chances to win the gold medal become almost impossible. I'm not saying it's impossible, but logically he's not gonna win the medal. Although I always hope I was wrong.

But this week, I want to talk about Koo Kien Kiat - Tan Boon Heong. The number one men double in our country. Once we know LCW's injury, some of us maybe try to divert the attention to the double who's on the 8th ranking of the world. But believe me, I personally didn't put ANY hope to these two boys. I don't know since when but they're being inconsistent each and every time. Someday they won against a superior opponent, someday they lose to unknown opponent. Bottom line, they're not in the spot to win the medal. Maybe bronze at their best.

Lastly, (I know, short entry) Zulfahmi Khairuddin, Malaysian Moto3 rider, got the 8th place in the starting grid for tomorrow race in Silverstone. This is the full result of the Moto3 qualifying round:
1. Maverick Viñales SPA (FTR Honda) 2m 16.187s
2. Efren Vazquez SPA (FTR Honda) 2m 16.385s
3. Alexis Masbou FRA (Honda) 2m 17.043s
4. Sandro Cortese GER (KTM) 2m 17.123s
5. Danny Kent GBR (KTM) 2m 17.337s
6. Luis Salom SPA (Kalex KTM) 2m 17.485s
7. Louis Rossi FRA (FTR Honda) 2m 17.539s
8. Zulfahmi Khairuddin MAL (KTM) 2m 17.873s
9. Romano Fenati ITA (FTR Honda) 2m 17.904s
10. Alex Rins SPA (Suter Honda) 2m 17.908s
11. Miguel Oliveira POR (Suter Honda) 2m 18.090s
12. Alessandro Tonucci ITA (FTR Honda) 2m 18.151s
13. Niccolò Antonelli ITA (FTR Honda) 2m 18.238s
14. Jakub Kornfeil CZE (FTR Honda) 2m 18.422s
15. Arthur Sissis AUS (KTM) 2m 18.535s

Source from crash.net