Cover Lee Zi Jia brought home a bronze medal for men’s single badminton at this year’s Paris Olympics (Photo: Getty Images)
Lee Zi Jia brought home a bronze medal for men’s single badminton at this year’s Paris Olympics (Photo: Getty Images)
1 / 1
With a total of 26 competitors across 11 sports, Malaysia concludes the Olympics with two bronze medals
Following a disheartening crash during the last lap of the keirin final, Malaysian cyclist Muhammad Shah Firdaus Sahrom’s hopes of winning his first Olympic medal ended in disappointment. However, Team Malaysia still brought home two bronze medals in badminton after 19 days of adrenaline and turmoil.
Read more: Paris Olympics 2024: The best jewellery on show
After a riveting match against India’s Lakshya Ren, Lee Zii Jia took two sets and subsequently, the bronze medal for men’s singles.
Meanwhile, Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik of the men’s doubles team also won bronze after winning two sets against Denmark’s Kim Astrup and Anders Skaarup Rasmussen.
Of the 26 athletes, 15 of Malaysia’s competitors made their Olympic debut this year, including Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan. Despite being defeated during their bronze medal match, the women’s doubles pair made national history as the first Malaysian team to reach the semi-finals in their category.
Aniq Kasdan also narrowly missed the bronze medal by 1kg in the men’s 61kg weightlifting event. In doing so, he set a new national record total lift of 297kg. He also broke the national snatch record of 129kg, set by Muhamad Aznil Bidin, successfully lifting 130kg.
See also: Why the 2024 Paris Olympics was a triumph for representation and diversity
Cyclist Dato’ Azizulhasni Awang broke the national record during the qualifying for the men’s sprint with a time of 9.402 seconds, outdoing his previous national record of 9.532 seconds. But despite the record-breaking sprint, Azizulhasni’s journey in the men’s sprint event ended in the last 16 repechage heat, finishing third behind Israel’s Mikhail Yakovlev and Poland’s Rudyk Mateusz at the Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines Velodrome.
However, the real heartbreak came during the first heat of the men’s keirin event where Azizulhasni was disqualified for overtaking the derny before it exited the track.
Hope then rested on Shah Firdaus Sahrom who navigated his way to the top-six men’s keirin final, becoming the only the third Malaysian to do so after Azizulhasni Awang and Josiah Ng. Despite a hopeful performance, the final race delivered another heartbreak to Malaysians as a collision with Japan's Shinji Nakano sent Shah and Britain's Jack Carlin crashing onto the track dashing his hopes for a medal.
On the women’s cycling front, Nurul Izzah Izzati Mohd Asri also broke the national record in qualifying for the women’s sprint with a time of 10.709 seconds and is currently considered an emerging force in the cycling track.
With less than a month to prepare, diver Nur Dhabitah Sabri, who competed through the unused country quota, managed to reach the top 12 final of the women's springboard event, a remarkable feat on such short notice.
Additionally, diver Bertrand Rhodict who made his Olympic debut this year was eliminated in the preliminary round of the men’s 10m platform event, finishing 25th out of 26 with a total score of 313.70 points. Rhodict described his Olympic debut as an eye-opener and a valuable experience in finding his direction in the sport.
NOW READ
LA28: 5 new sports added to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics
Paris Olympics 2024: What goes on inside the Olympic Village
How Olympic Villages evolved into sustainable urban legacies
Topics
Best of Tatler Asia video highlights
Featured videos from around Tatler Asia: Get exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the interviews we do, the events we attend, the shoots we produce, and the incredibly important people who are part of our community
