My Story
Tuesday, March 21, 2006
Melbourne 2006 XVIII Commonwealth Games Malaysia Boleh! 21 March 2006 Report by Adelina Ong, on Monday 20 March, 2006 Malaysia has finally done it! They have won the illusive gold medal in the mixed teams competition at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.
Golden Girl…and Boys
History has been made. For the first time in the Commonwealth Games, England has failed to win this event and Malaysia has won its biggest accolade in mixed teams competitions. Despite being seeded No.1 coming into this event, not everyone was convinced that the Malaysians would take home the gold given that its women have always been the weakest link in such events. The closest Malaysia had ever got to a sniff of a medal at the Games was in Manchester in 2002 when they played England for a place in the semi-finals.
A very young and inexperienced Wong Mew Choo then did the unthinkable to upset English player, Julia Mann to give Malaysia a chance but unfortunately, both the men’s and women’s doubles lost their matches and Malaysia came home empty handed in that event. Since then, the Malaysian women have worked hard to raise their standard of play and their efforts have borne fruit with Wong now able to play competitively against the top players of the world, herself becoming one of them, registering an impressive world ranking of No.12.
The quality of Malaysian women’s doubles players also continued to improve, with their current top pair, Wong Pei Tty and Chin Eei Hui achieving great results internationally to be now ranked as the sixth best pair in the world. As a result of this improvement, Malaysia wore the favourites tag coming into this event and today was Malaysia’s moment of truth.
The first two matches between these two badminton giants went as predicted. World No.1 mixed doubles pair of Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms gave England the ideal start when they trounced Wong Choong Han and Ooi Sock Ai, 21-15, 21-12. Lee Chong Wei then evened things up for Malaysia when he methodically defeated Aamir Ghaffar 21-8, 21-8. Next, the match everyone was waiting for finally arrived. It was the women’s singles between Wong Mew Choo of Malaysia against Tracey Hallam of England. This match was very important for Malaysia. Winning this match would certainly give them an edge to wrap up the tie at the end of the men’s doubles without having to rely on the more risky women’s doubles match which on paper, favoured England slightly.
This match between the world No.10 Hallam and No.12 Wong also offered the excited badminton fans a sneak preview of what could potentially be the final of the women’s singles event between its top two seeds. The highly anticipated battle lived up to all its hype. Describing the match as “close” would be an understatement as both players fought point for point, leaving their respective supporters gripping the very edge of their seats for dear life. The first set was a tight affair until Wong pulled away at 19-16. Hallam then snatched up four points in a row to hold a set point. Wong then leveled at 20-20 at which point spectators started holding their breath as these two players took turns in holding one match point after another before Hallam cracked first under pressure to surrender the first set, 25-27. In the second, Hallam was the first to create a gap at 19-14 before Wong slowly but surely fought her way back into the game to force deuce. Hallam held her nerve this time, winning 22-20 to take the match into three sets. It was an extremely tight third set with both players hardly making any errors and often long rallies followed before a point was won, the longest one was recorded at 30 strokes in 32 seconds of play. Koo and Chan on their way to victory Both players were neck and neck giving the spectators no indication who would be the likely victor. What they could see though was Wong’s hands shaking as she served for the match at 20-18. A long rally followed with the crowd gasping each time they thought a shot was not retrievable only to see the players going for that extra stretch to keep the game in play. It was Wong that finally threw her racquet up in the air and screamed in delight when Hallam returned her smash into the net to give her the game and the match! “I think she’s a better player so all I wanted to do was fight all the way to the end,” exclaimed the overjoyed Wong afterwards. “There were times I thought I might lose but I know my team mates were counting on me, so I kept at it, never giving up,” said Wong emotionally. It was then down to Chan Chong Ming and Koo Kien Keat to strike that historical home run.
On the other side, Anthony Clark and Robert Blair knew it was up to them to keep England’s gold medal hopes alive. They fought, attacked and dived all over the court to try and out-maneuver the Malaysians but unfortunately for them, Chan and Koo were in fine form tonight. Anything the English threw at them, they hit back harder, stronger and better. The Malaysians were never truly in trouble, carving out a 21-14, 21-14 win to send the Malaysian supporters soaring into a state of frenzy and the English fans sighing for what could have been.
Golden Girl…and Boys
History has been made. For the first time in the Commonwealth Games, England has failed to win this event and Malaysia has won its biggest accolade in mixed teams competitions. Despite being seeded No.1 coming into this event, not everyone was convinced that the Malaysians would take home the gold given that its women have always been the weakest link in such events. The closest Malaysia had ever got to a sniff of a medal at the Games was in Manchester in 2002 when they played England for a place in the semi-finals.
A very young and inexperienced Wong Mew Choo then did the unthinkable to upset English player, Julia Mann to give Malaysia a chance but unfortunately, both the men’s and women’s doubles lost their matches and Malaysia came home empty handed in that event. Since then, the Malaysian women have worked hard to raise their standard of play and their efforts have borne fruit with Wong now able to play competitively against the top players of the world, herself becoming one of them, registering an impressive world ranking of No.12.
The quality of Malaysian women’s doubles players also continued to improve, with their current top pair, Wong Pei Tty and Chin Eei Hui achieving great results internationally to be now ranked as the sixth best pair in the world. As a result of this improvement, Malaysia wore the favourites tag coming into this event and today was Malaysia’s moment of truth.
The first two matches between these two badminton giants went as predicted. World No.1 mixed doubles pair of Nathan Robertson and Gail Emms gave England the ideal start when they trounced Wong Choong Han and Ooi Sock Ai, 21-15, 21-12. Lee Chong Wei then evened things up for Malaysia when he methodically defeated Aamir Ghaffar 21-8, 21-8. Next, the match everyone was waiting for finally arrived. It was the women’s singles between Wong Mew Choo of Malaysia against Tracey Hallam of England. This match was very important for Malaysia. Winning this match would certainly give them an edge to wrap up the tie at the end of the men’s doubles without having to rely on the more risky women’s doubles match which on paper, favoured England slightly.
This match between the world No.10 Hallam and No.12 Wong also offered the excited badminton fans a sneak preview of what could potentially be the final of the women’s singles event between its top two seeds. The highly anticipated battle lived up to all its hype. Describing the match as “close” would be an understatement as both players fought point for point, leaving their respective supporters gripping the very edge of their seats for dear life. The first set was a tight affair until Wong pulled away at 19-16. Hallam then snatched up four points in a row to hold a set point. Wong then leveled at 20-20 at which point spectators started holding their breath as these two players took turns in holding one match point after another before Hallam cracked first under pressure to surrender the first set, 25-27. In the second, Hallam was the first to create a gap at 19-14 before Wong slowly but surely fought her way back into the game to force deuce. Hallam held her nerve this time, winning 22-20 to take the match into three sets. It was an extremely tight third set with both players hardly making any errors and often long rallies followed before a point was won, the longest one was recorded at 30 strokes in 32 seconds of play. Koo and Chan on their way to victory Both players were neck and neck giving the spectators no indication who would be the likely victor. What they could see though was Wong’s hands shaking as she served for the match at 20-18. A long rally followed with the crowd gasping each time they thought a shot was not retrievable only to see the players going for that extra stretch to keep the game in play. It was Wong that finally threw her racquet up in the air and screamed in delight when Hallam returned her smash into the net to give her the game and the match! “I think she’s a better player so all I wanted to do was fight all the way to the end,” exclaimed the overjoyed Wong afterwards. “There were times I thought I might lose but I know my team mates were counting on me, so I kept at it, never giving up,” said Wong emotionally. It was then down to Chan Chong Ming and Koo Kien Keat to strike that historical home run.
On the other side, Anthony Clark and Robert Blair knew it was up to them to keep England’s gold medal hopes alive. They fought, attacked and dived all over the court to try and out-maneuver the Malaysians but unfortunately for them, Chan and Koo were in fine form tonight. Anything the English threw at them, they hit back harder, stronger and better. The Malaysians were never truly in trouble, carving out a 21-14, 21-14 win to send the Malaysian supporters soaring into a state of frenzy and the English fans sighing for what could have been.
Friday, March 10, 2006
My class had a surprise birthday party for our class teacher, Mr Radha today. They ordered vegetarian chocolate cake cos he’s vegetarian today. Never knew a cake without eggs existed until today.
We used the old trick: distracted his attention while we set up d cake. A few guys went to surround him asking all sorts of questions while d girls set up d cake. It was a ‘double-storey’ cake. We even lighted the candles. Then we started to sing Happy Birthday…haha…I THINK Mr Radha was surprised seeing a lighted cake suddenly appearing in front of him. We asked him to make a wish and he wished that all of us get 4A’s for STPM…hehe…very unselfish of him. Then we gave him a framed up photo of our class ppl (he joked that he’ll hang it up in his bathroom to remind him of all his naughty students) and a tie for his present.
The party’s food was mainly contributed by the school. =P Actually the food was from a hamper that my class won from the minggu bm sketch. Surprisingly my class won 1st place for that particular sketch even though we didn’t finish our sketch cos the 10 minutes given was already up.
And of course a party wouldn’t be complete without taking photos…my classmates LOVE to take photos. I might upload them here when I receive them and find the time…=p
We used the old trick: distracted his attention while we set up d cake. A few guys went to surround him asking all sorts of questions while d girls set up d cake. It was a ‘double-storey’ cake. We even lighted the candles. Then we started to sing Happy Birthday…haha…I THINK Mr Radha was surprised seeing a lighted cake suddenly appearing in front of him. We asked him to make a wish and he wished that all of us get 4A’s for STPM…hehe…very unselfish of him. Then we gave him a framed up photo of our class ppl (he joked that he’ll hang it up in his bathroom to remind him of all his naughty students) and a tie for his present.
The party’s food was mainly contributed by the school. =P Actually the food was from a hamper that my class won from the minggu bm sketch. Surprisingly my class won 1st place for that particular sketch even though we didn’t finish our sketch cos the 10 minutes given was already up.
And of course a party wouldn’t be complete without taking photos…my classmates LOVE to take photos. I might upload them here when I receive them and find the time…=p
Monday, March 06, 2006
Note: I DON’T have double accounts on friendster. I don’t have THAT many friends...=p The other Zhi Jun is a 14-year-old guy who also studies in ACS. Haha…yeah…so coincidentally we have the same name but of course a different surname. Actually I already knew that a guy with the same name as me is in the same school as me. Cos I helped (my dad) type d Form 1 name list last year. But, dat guy just found out recently I guess.
Anyway, today he came looking for me in my class. Dat time I was not having any lessons (MUET teacher ‘busy’…so happy!), then my classmate called from behind n said someone wanted to c me. I thought a teacher wanted to pass some letters to my dad or something liddat. When I went out, saw this Zhi Jun in prefect uniform. Haha…I could recognize him cos of his pics in friendster. Luckily, cos if not, I would have been soooo blur… He just said ‘nice to meet ya’ and chao-ed.
What a coincidence…1st person that I know has the same name as me…and he’s in the same school as me. Whether my name is a guy’s name or his is a girl’s name….I’m not sure….hehe…but I guess it could be both depending on the Chinese characters…=p
Anyway, today he came looking for me in my class. Dat time I was not having any lessons (MUET teacher ‘busy’…so happy!), then my classmate called from behind n said someone wanted to c me. I thought a teacher wanted to pass some letters to my dad or something liddat. When I went out, saw this Zhi Jun in prefect uniform. Haha…I could recognize him cos of his pics in friendster. Luckily, cos if not, I would have been soooo blur… He just said ‘nice to meet ya’ and chao-ed.
What a coincidence…1st person that I know has the same name as me…and he’s in the same school as me. Whether my name is a guy’s name or his is a girl’s name….I’m not sure….hehe…but I guess it could be both depending on the Chinese characters…=p
Saturday, March 04, 2006
HAHAHA.....I'm back. Actually didn't plan to be big until after STPM but den um....couldn't tahan d la. U see...my internet wire got spoiled AGAIN after only about 3 weeks of age . I dunno what happened...but maybe 'sot tou'. If the current wire gets spoiled again....den confirm something wrong wif my comp. Anyway, I didn't want to buy this new wire until after STPM but today when I went to Atria it was right in front of my eyes so I couldn't help it. =p So here I am... =p
Haha....actually I hv nothing to blog about. What I did today...kai kai in Atria shopping center only. We haven't been there for a very long time. We used to go there all the time when I was younger cos my mum's school used to deal with a comp shop there. Haha...good old memories...whenever I was there I would always buy some of those sugar sweets or cotton candy. But now too big to be buying all those...haih....
Haha....actually I hv nothing to blog about. What I did today...kai kai in Atria shopping center only. We haven't been there for a very long time. We used to go there all the time when I was younger cos my mum's school used to deal with a comp shop there. Haha...good old memories...whenever I was there I would always buy some of those sugar sweets or cotton candy. But now too big to be buying all those...haih....
