BIRMINGHAM, Aug 7 — Top national women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-M Thinaah moved one step closer to landing their maiden gold medal on a day men’s doubles aces Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik threw away their chance when the dust settled in the semi-finals of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games here today.

World number 11 Pearly-Thinaah downed India’s Treesa Jolly-Gaytri Gopichand Pullela 21-13, 21-6 to set up a title showdown against Chloe Birch-Lauren Smith after the English pair ousted Australia’s Gronya Somerville-Wendy Chen Hsuan-Yu 21-14, 24-22 in the other semi-final.

Pearly-Thinaah will be looking to ensure that the women’s doubles gold medal stays with Malaysia following Chow Mei Kuan-Vivian Hoo’s triumph in the 2018 edition in Gold Coast, Australia.

Pearly-Thinaah’s victory certainly brought cheers to the national badminton camp as national rising star Ng Tze Yong had earlier come from behind to oust India’s Kidambi Srikanth 13-21, 21-19, 21-10 to reach the men’s singles final.

However, any hopes of a triple treat were dashed when Aaron-Wooi Yik were stunned 21-18, 17-21, 4-21 by England’s Ben Lane-Sean Vendy in the men’s doubles semi-final.

Despite winning the first game, Aaron-Wooi Yik have only themselves to blame for a disappointing show in the second game before completely capitulating in the decider.

It was a sad ending for Malaysia’s men’s doubles players when Chan Peng Soon-Tan Kian Meng then went down 6-21, 15-21 to India’s top duo of Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty.

While Peng Soon admitted that the Indian pair brought out their ‘A’ game, Kian Meng vowed to give his best to try and win the bronze medal against Aaron-Wooi Yik.

It was a day of double blow to Kian Meng as he also lost in the mixed doubles semi-final when he and Lai Pei Jing went down fighting 23-25, 18-21 to Singapore’s Hee Yong Kai Terry-Jessica Wei Han Tan.

Kian Meng-Pei Jing will take on Scotland’s Adam Hall-Julie Macpherson for the bronze medal.

The bronze medal matches will begin at 5 pm local time today (12 am Aug 8 Malaysian time). — Bernama