Vijesh Rai in Glasgow
CHONG Wei Feng opened his bid to keep Malaysia’s stranglehold on the Commonwealth Games singles gold with a 21-13, 21-10 win over Buwaneka Dullewa of Sri Lanka in a second round tie at the Emirates Arena yesterday.
Wei Feng, who carries the country’s hopes following Lee Chong Wei’s injury-enforced withdrawal, had it easy against Dullewa and he shouldn’t face any trouble advancing to the quarter-finals as next up for him is Tony Stephenson of Northern Ireland.
Also through to the last 16 was Liew Daren, who beat Daniel Sam of Ghana 21-14, 21-16. Daren faces Dinuka Karunaratna of Sri Lanka next and if both the national shuttlers can see off the likes of Rajiv Ouseph of England and P. Kashyap of India, there could well be an all-Malaysian final on Sunday.
The rest of the national shuttlers were involved in late matches yesterday with the individual events all in the preliminary stage.
In squash, Nicol David and Low Wee Wern fell 11-8, 11-5 to India’s Dipika Pallikal-Joshana Chinappa while Rachel Arnold-Vanessa Raj got the better of Malta’s Kimberley Borg-Collette Sultana 11-7, 11-7.
Nicol-Wee Wern can still advance to the medal rounds as they opened their campaign late on Tuesday with a 7-11, 12-10, 11-6 win over Megan Craig-Kylie Lindsay of New Zealand. They played Mihiliya Methsarani-Nadindhi Udangawa of Sri Lanka in their final Group D match late yesterday.
In women’s hockey, Malaysia drew 0-0 with Wales, a result which meant they were sure of bettering their 2010 finish of 10th as they qualified for the seventh-eighth playoff against Canada.