SINGAPORE: Badminton star Lee Chong Wei’s first SEA Games in 10 years came to a premature end when Malaysia lost 3-2 to Indonesia in the men’s team semi-finals on Thursday.

Lee, 32, comfortably beat Firman Abdul Kholik 21-19, 21-10 but Malaysia’s campaign ended when Ihsan Maulana Mustofa won the deciding fifth rubber against Mohamad Arif.

Lee, who recently returned from a doping ban and is preparing for the world championships in August, spent a total of only 48 minutes on court in his two wins.

Lee did not speak with reporters after Malaysia’s defeat but immediately after his match, he hinted that he may return for another Southeast Asian (SEA) Games.

“Let’s see my condition,” he said, when asked if he would be tempted to play when Malaysia host the next edition in 2017.

Team technical director Morten Frost said Malaysia’s men would have to do some “soul-searching” after their early exit in Singapore.

“We have to do a little bit of soul searching on the men’s team but all in all I think it was a good performance tonight and with a little bit of luck we would have made it,” a dejected Frost told reporters.

Lee will not play the singles event because he is focusing on other tournaments to improve his ranking, which has slumped to 46 following his drugs ban.

“I want to qualify for the Olympics next year and I need my rankings to improve. That’s why I am playing at the US and Canadian Open,” Lee said, referring to the back-to-back tournaments later in June and in early July.

The long-time world number one and twice Olympic runner-up received an eight-month, backdated ban last month for accidentally ingesting a banned anti-inflammatory.

Indonesia, which fielded a weakened team in the Games, will face Thailand in the men’s team final on Friday.

Singapore’s new swimming sensation Joseph Schooling signed off from the Southeast Asian Games with a record ninth gold medal, confirming his status as the star of the region’s biggest multi-sports event.

A class above his rivals, the 19-year-old won gold in all nine events he entered and set 10 SEA Games records along the way.

“That was goal going into this meet and I’m happy to have reached my expectations and my targets,” he said after clinching his ninth gold medal, in the Singaporean 4x100 metre medley relay.

“It’s just one step forward to my ultimate dream and I think I’m on track for achieving that.” Based in the United States, training and studying at the University of Texas, Schooling is already setting his sights on bigger things.

His immediate goal is this year’s world championships in Russia, where he will trim his workload back to three events, all butterfly, before turning his focus to next year’s Rio Olympics.

“This was just a small stepping stone to what I’m trying to achieve,” he said.

“I know it’s a big deal to Singapore and stuff, but I think a lot of guys on the team have gone past the SEA Games and we’re on a different platform right now than where we were a couple of years ago.

“We’re going to have to start looking at Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and slowly the worlds and ultimately the Olympics.” Inspired by Schooling, Singapore finished the six-day swimming programme with 23 gold medals from 38 events.

Schooling’s 18-year-old team mate Quah Zheng Wen, another exciting prospect from the tiny city-state, won seven golds and medals in each of the 12 events he entered.

Vietnam finished second with 10 golds, eight of which were won by Florida-based teenager Nguyen Thi Anh Vien, a gold medallist at last year’s Youth Olympics.

Hosts Singapore limped out of the football tournament after slumping to a 1-0 loss to Indonesia, who completed the semi-final lineup.

Midfielder Evan Dimas scored the only goal in the 46th minute as the country banned by world governing body FIFA last month for government interference in their football association kept up their bid for a first soccer gold since 1991.

The under-23 side were only allowed to compete in Singapore as the ban had come after the tournament had started.

Singapore needed to win the fixture to leapfrog their opponents and finish second in the pool behind already qualified Myanmar but their long ball gameplan was easily nullified on the astroturf at the Jalan Besar Stadium.

The hosts slim hopes were all but ended when leftback Ho Wai Loon was shown a second yellow card in the 65th minute for a mistimed challenge.

Indonesia next face hot-favourites Thailand in the last four at the 55,000-seat National Stadium on Saturday after Myanmar take on Vietnam earlier in the day at the same venue.

Published in Dawn, June 12th, 2015

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