GLASGOW: Malaysia's search for a player in the mould of Lee Chong Wei will have to continue after shuttlers Chong Wei Feng and Liew Daren failed to step up in the absence of the World No 1 in the Commonwealth Games on Friday.
Wei Feng and Daren had been entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining Malaysia's stranglehold on the men's singles title - national shuttlers have won the gold in every edition since the 1990 Commonwealth Games - but both lost to players from India in the quarter-finals.
The inconsistent Daren was the first to crash out, losing tamely to P. Kashyap, who romped home 21-13, 21-14.
Wei Feng, however, was expected to persevere against R.V. Gurusaidutt but he too fell as the Indian scored a 21-15, 8-21, 21-17 win to end Malaysia's 24-year dominance.
There was better news for Malaysia in the other events though as national shuttlers made the semi-finals of the men's doubles, women's singles and doubles and mixed doubles.
Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong advanced to the last four with a 21-17, 21-19 win over Australia's Robbin Middleton-Ross Smith. They play England's Chris Adcock-Andrew Ellis with the burden of having to make sure they make the final.
Tee Jing Yi advanced to the women's singles semi-final with a 18-21, 21-19, 21-19 win over India's P.C. Thulasi and she plays Kirsty Gilmour of Scotland today.The other last four tie will be between favourite P.V. Sindhu of India and Canada's Michelle Li.
Woon Khe Wei-Vivian Hoo made the women's doubles semi-final, beating Sandra Le Grange-Jennifer Fry of South Africa 21-7, 21-10. They meet England's Gabrielle Adcock-Lauren Smith today.
Lai Pei Jing-Lim Loo Yin joined Khe Wei-Vivian in the last four when they came from a dropped game to beat Singapore's Shinta Mulia Sari-Yao Lei 19-21, 22-20, 21-19 and up next will be India's Jwala Gutta-Ashwini Ponnaappa, who won the title in New Delhi four years ago.
Mixed doubles Chan Peng Soon-Lai Pei Jing stunned Singapore's second seeds Danny Bawa Chrisnanta-Vanessa Neo 21-8, 17-21, 21-19 and will play Chris Langridge-Heather Oliver today.
In diving, Ooi Tze Liang failed to add to his 3m springboard gold medal when he and partner Chew Yiwei finished third in the four-team 10m platform synchro.
Only gold and silver were awarded, with Australia's Domonic Bedggood-Matthew Mitcham scoring 399.54 for the gold and England's Tom Daley-James Denny having to settle for second place with 399.36. The Malaysians scored 387.39.
In the women's 1m springboard, Cheong Jun Hoong finished eighth with 260.00 points and Traisy Vivien Tukiet was 12th with a score of 205.75. Canada's Jennifer Abel won gold with 287.25 with Australians Maddison Keeney (281.95) and Esther Qin (278.65) taking the silver and bronze.
In athletics, Iskandar Alwi finished ninth in the pole vault at Hampden Park while the much-maligned Malaysian men's hockey team beat Scotland 2-1 to finish seventh.
The Malaysian women had also finished seventh on Thursday, beating Canada 3-0 on penalties after their classification match ended 2-2. The goals were the first scored by the Malaysian women after failing to hit even one in the preliminary round.
There was not to be another medal from table tennis after the women's team silver as Beh Lee Wei-Ng Sock Khim, after fighting back from two games down, were beaten 8-11, 5-11, 11-8, 13-11, 6-11 by Canada's Luo Anqi-Zhang Mo in the quarter-finals.
Lee Wei-Sock Khim were the last Malaysians standing, having beaten India's Ankita Das-Poulomi Ghatak 11-7, 7-11, 11-7, 8-11, 11-4 earlier on Friday, after Lee Rou You-Ho Ying fell 11-9, 11-9, 11-5 to New Zealand's Li Chunli-Karen Li 11-9, 11-9, 11-5 in the third round.