steadyaku47

Saturday 20 August 2016

LCW and Lin Dan : A First Hand Account of the Match


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I just had my Rio Olympics men's singles badminton final winner and Malaysia's first ever gold medal with Chong Wei's winning point over Lin Dan a few minutes ago. Jumping and punching the sofa mattress together with my daughter and yelling with acute joy, we were brought down to Earth when my wife said that it was only the semi-final.

What a damper it was when I realised the fact. I had been on edge from the first point of the first set. When Lin Dan took the opening set, I already muttered to myself that it will be dejavu as scripted. I did not follow the 2nd set and but was not really convinced even after CW took the set. I said to myself that Lin Dan was engaging the same tatics of taking a breather in the second set and trying to demoralize our main man by making him work to close out the set even though he was leading by a country mile.

When the 3rd set commenced, I glanced at the proceedings but was not as involved as my wife and daughter. Each time I commented about CW's play which I deemed as not on par with LD, my wife will tell me off to go and take Chong Wei's place instead of complaining. My daughter also remarked that CW was trying his best.

When the score was at 17 all, I exited the hall and went in the toilet. But I left the door open and sat on the toilet bowl, my ears taking in the TV3 commentary. It became 18-17 CW...19-17 CW...20-17 CW. I rushed out to the hall and planted myself in front of the tele to witness history. It became 20-18 CW...20-19 CW. Unbelivable but true it was 20-20. I think I lost it then. Time seem to stand still and it was excrutiatingly difficult to comprehend why Chong Wei could not kill the dragon when he was mortally injured.

But CW saw a chink in LD's armor and it was 21-20 CW. The clouds cleared and the Sun shone through. 22-20 Lee Chong Wei.

After the europhia of uninhibited burst of joy and National pride and feeling like an idiot for not trusting and giving undivided support to our Man on the court, now I have to go through the whole process for the Finals.

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