IT was a fleeting moment being in the Asian Games semi-finals but nothing can take away the fact that Beh Shun Ting and Luk Teck Hua achieved a historic first for Malaysian beach volleyball at the Asian Games Town in Guangzhou yesterday. Shun Ting and Teck Hua were blown away by China's Huang Ying and Yue Yuan 21-7, 21-13 in an anti-climax to their amazing run to the last four, the first by the pair in a top-level Asian competition.
The Malaysians, however, could not repeat their preliminary round win over the same Chinese pair as nothing went right for them yesterday.
Huang Ying's jump-serves often found the inside of the line and the corners while the Malaysians regularly left gaping space for the host team to find.
Shun Ting and Teck Hua were also having a nightmare at the net and hardly got a block in as the Chinese chose to tap straight-line or diagonally over the net.
Still to beat the Huang Ying-Yue Yuan the first time around and follow up with wins over established Kazakh and Japanese pairs, is a great achievement for Shun Ting and Teck Hua, although they probably wished they gave it more of a fight in the semi-finals.
"This is our best result ever, getting to the semi-finals of the Asian Games. We have never before done better than a bronze at the Sea Games.
"But we had trouble getting to their jump-serves today (yesterday). The speed of their serves took the ball to all corners, the back courts and lines. We couldn't get to the first ball and our movement was a little slow," said a disappointed Shun Ting, 25.
Teck Hua said compared to their first meeting, the Chinese pair made fewer errors this time with their serves.
"The other day they made a lot of mistakes and we took advantage to win. But today (yesterday) they read our play," said Teck Hua, 28.
Still, there is a bronze medal playoff today with Thailand's 2009 Sea Games runners-up Usa Tenpaksee-Jarunee Sannok to look forward to.
"We were not able to block much today because they aimed away from the body so we will have to reduce our mistakes tomorrow (today). We'll be going all out for the bronze and try to take that first point," added Shun Ting.
Read more: NST/
The Malaysians, however, could not repeat their preliminary round win over the same Chinese pair as nothing went right for them yesterday.
Huang Ying's jump-serves often found the inside of the line and the corners while the Malaysians regularly left gaping space for the host team to find.
Shun Ting and Teck Hua were also having a nightmare at the net and hardly got a block in as the Chinese chose to tap straight-line or diagonally over the net.
Still to beat the Huang Ying-Yue Yuan the first time around and follow up with wins over established Kazakh and Japanese pairs, is a great achievement for Shun Ting and Teck Hua, although they probably wished they gave it more of a fight in the semi-finals.
"This is our best result ever, getting to the semi-finals of the Asian Games. We have never before done better than a bronze at the Sea Games.
"But we had trouble getting to their jump-serves today (yesterday). The speed of their serves took the ball to all corners, the back courts and lines. We couldn't get to the first ball and our movement was a little slow," said a disappointed Shun Ting, 25.
Teck Hua said compared to their first meeting, the Chinese pair made fewer errors this time with their serves.
"The other day they made a lot of mistakes and we took advantage to win. But today (yesterday) they read our play," said Teck Hua, 28.
Still, there is a bronze medal playoff today with Thailand's 2009 Sea Games runners-up Usa Tenpaksee-Jarunee Sannok to look forward to.
"We were not able to block much today because they aimed away from the body so we will have to reduce our mistakes tomorrow (today). We'll be going all out for the bronze and try to take that first point," added Shun Ting.
Read more: NST/
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