Birmingham: Malaysia’s World No. 11 women’s doubles pair – Pearly Tan/Thinaah Muralitharan created a sensation when they won Malaysia’s seventh gold medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham on Monday.
The victory came after they beat England’s World No. 14 Chloe Birch/Lauren Smith in a one-sided final which took place at the National Exhibition Center (NEC). Tan/Muralitharan won 21-5, 21-8.
Thinaah was excited about her success in the final.
“I am very happy with this win,” said Muralitharan.
The women’s doubles win also made up for the disappointment in the men’s singles event, after World No. 42 Ng Tze Yong missed out on gold by going down to World No. 10 Lakshya Sen of India in the final.
Ng bowed out 21-19, 9-21, 16-21 to the 2022 All England runner-up in an intense 81 minutes action.
This was Ng’s second medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games after winning gold in the mixed team event last week.
Despite only capturing silver, Ng has taken badminton by storm at the 2022 Commonwealth Games after beating reigning World Champion Loh Kean Yew in the quarter-finals 21-15,14-21,11-21, before overcoming the 2021 World Championships runner-up Kidambi Srikanth in the semi-finals 13-21, 21-19, 21-10.
India became the biggest winner on Monday after PV Sindhu defeated Michelle Li of Canada 21-15, 21-13 for the women’s singles gold while Satwiksairaj Rankireddy/Chirag Shetty outlasted Ben Lane/Sean Vendy of England 21-15, 21-13 in the men’s doubles final.
Meanwhile, Singapore’s World No. 35 Terry Hee Yong Kai/Tan Wei Han pulled off a huge upset to beat World No. 10 Marcus Ellis/Lauren Smith of England 21-16, 21-15 to clinch the mixed doubles gold.
