Malaysia bag seventh gold, thanks to men’s squash team
Saturday, 1 Sep 20189:14 PM MYT
JAKARTA: The Malaysian men's squash team produced a giant-killing act to beat top seeds Hong Kong 2-1 in the final in Jakarta and hand Malaysia its seventh gold in the Asian Games.
Mohd Nafiizwan Adnan (pic) dived to retrieve every shot and fought bravely to give a lifeline to Malaysia by beating world No. 19 Max Lee 11-9, 11-7, 11-7 in the second singles after Ivan Yuen, ranked 60th in the world, lost in the first singles with a 7-11, 18-20, 11-9, 8-11 defeat to Yip Tsz Fung.
Nafiizwan's courageous show sparked a fierce fightback from Ng Eain Yow as the latter claimed the biggest success since his world junior title triumph in 2016 by beating Leo Au, ranked 23 places above him, 11-7, 11-7, 11-4 to secure the unexpected gold medal for Malaysia.
But they certainly did not expect the Malaysian team, only ranked third, to come out fighting.
Malaysia had defeated fourth seeds Pakistan 2-0 while Hong Kong took out India by a similar margin to set up the final showdown on Friday.Malaysia had claimed silver twice in the men's team event in Guangzhou (2010) and in Incheon (2014).
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Read more at https://www.thestar.com.my/sport/squash/2018/09/01/malaysia-bags-seventh-gold-thanks-to-mens-squash/#5Diss2xDcgF0PBwd.99
