Gold for Malaysia's Lim and Ang

04 August 2002

Malaysia's Lim Pek Siah and Ang Li Peng claimed their country's second badminton gold medal of the day by beating New Zealand.

Malaysia manage to grab the gold

The Malaysian pair beat New Zealand's Sara Runesten-Petersen and Nicole Gordon at the Bolton Arena earlier today. The two pairs looked evenly matched from the start, with the New Zealanders taking the first set 7-8.

Lim and Ang hit back to take the second 7-4, but the Kiwis forged ahead again wrapping up the third in 2-7 in just seven minutes.

The Malaysians raced ahead to establish a 4-0 lead in the fourth set, but the New Zealanders refused to cave in and pegged Lim and Ang back to 4-2. The Malaysians stretched their lead again to 6-2, but some inconsistent serving let Runesten-Petersen and Gordon back into the set.

The New Zealanders gradually clawed their way back to 6-5 before Lim dropped a shot just over the net, catching the New Zealanders in mid-court, to level the match at two sets apiece. The fourth set had lasted a marathon 21 minutes.

But Lim and Ang took just seven minutes to wrap up the last set and with it, the gold medal. As the New Zealanders tired, Lim and Ang raced through the set to establish a 6-0 lead.

At match point, Gordon fired a return into the net to hand a 7-0 victory to the Malaysians.