That’s how long it took China’s Lin Dan to snatch the Beijing Olympic 2008 Gold medal from Malaysia’s Lee Chong Wei. I was not disappointed with his failure to get the gold but I was a bit dismayed to see that there was hardly a fight back from him.

He looked very tired and lost… Nevertheless, he had got something for Malaysia and that still matters…

In defeat, no one should fault him. He tried and everyone loves a winner. But in defeat, it is time for all Malaysians to consider something – Chong Wei made sacrifices, trained and endured a lot of pain to make it to Beijing. These should override the gold medal factor.

To the self-appointed critics and analysts, leave him alone. He never clamed his invincibility. He never was seeded number one – Lin Dan was the top seed. He never promised the gold. He gave his best and ended up with silver, not for want of trying. Simply put, it was not his day. – Sun2Surf

* Picture from Sun2Surf.

May be it is the last hope or the only hope for Malaysia to get a medal in Beijing Olympic 2008. Lee Chong Wei beat Indonesia’s Sony Dwi Kuncoro yesterday to remain in the last four for the medals.

Today he will meet Lee Hyunil of South Korea in Men’s Singles Badminton Semifinal and let’s see whether he could be going for the first ever Olympic Gold for Malaysia or not.

The other Malaysian that I know who is still in the game is Cheng Chu Sian who beat Lee Chang-Hwan of South Korea in Archery. He has a lot more battle to go through… Did I miss anybody?

Anyway, looking at the Malaysian Olympic Team 2008, it is so clear that we are still so far away from the world standard… It is clear that we could not run faster, jump higher, swim stronger, etc but I just could not understand why we could not aim better such as in shooting or archery?

Even the bounty of RM 1,000,000 for the first gold announced by the government could not lift our standard any higher than it is. May be the government announced that since they already know that it would only be a miracle for the team to bring back any gold or more than one gold for that matter… I don’t know…

It’s tough. If they can’t do it. I can’t even dream of doing it. All the best to any Malaysian who is still fighting in Beijing.

Beijing 2008 Summer Olympic Games begins today!