Amidst the pulsating cheers of fans, palpable heat and tensions rising, national women’s duo Pearly Tan and M Thinaah made history in being the first women’s doubles to qualify for the semifinals round at Paris Olympics 2024.
In the quarter-finals at Porte de La Chapelle Arena this morning (evening in Malaysia), Pearly-Thinaah put up a brilliant performance to upset 10th ranked South Koreans, 21-12, 21-13 in 42 minutes.
The national doubles team has only qualified for the quarter-finals of the Olympic Games once in Rio 2016, when Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei lost to the event’s champions Misaki Matsutomo-Ayaka Takahashi.
A flurry of support came rushing in the direction from Malaysians and the DAP representatives were no exception. In particular, Minister of Youth and Sports, Sdri Hannah Yeoh congratulated the duo on her Facebook post. Sdri Pang Sock Tao, ADN for Kuala Kubu Bharu also sent well wishes their way across her social media platforms.
Speaking to Bernama after the historic moment, Pearly-Thinaah who were happy with their success, and wanted to remain focused for the next two matches.
“Once again, the main challenge was ourselves…We were quite nervous, and whole night couldn’t sleep well, as we know today’s match is very important to us and we really want to win. We entered the court calm, focus every point and enjoy the rallies, so this has worked today.
“In the next match, we have nothing to lose, from the round robin until now, we are giving our best in every match and I think we have no regrets. For the next match, as usual we don’t want to leave with any regrets and just enjoy every point,“ said Pearly.
