Lee was the country’s greatest hope to finally bring the gold drought to a glorious end.
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Chen Long, seeded one spot behind the top-ranked Lee, dragged the eagle (as he is widely known) down to earth with a 74-minute, straight-sets 21-18, 21-18 victory, that enabled him to improve upon the bronze medal that he had bagged in the 2012 London Olympics.
“The combined value of those three silvers from three Olympics is way beyond that of one gold”, said Chen.
Their career head-to-head comparison had shown that there was really nothing to choose between the two.
With Chen’s fans bellowing “China must win!”, the Chinese grabbed four match points when Lee flicked an attempted drop-shot into the net.
In his swansong appearance, the 33-year-old was unable to break down his much younger opponent in a tight and entertaining game with some high quality skills displayed by both players throughout.
On and around the court, Chen Long celebrated deliriously, hailing the crowd, throwing his jersey into one stand to whip up a frenzy, while officials and volunteers were in scramble mode as the medal ceremony beckoned.
“I want to pay tribute to @shaberyc (Datuk Seri Ahmad Shabery Cheek, former Youth and Sports Minister) for starting the Road to Rio programme four years ago leading to our success”.
Lee battled to the finish, saving two match-points but surrendered on the third with a desperate smash that just sailed wide, triggering wild celebrations from red-clad Chinese fans in flag-draped terraces.
Instead, it was another Chinese bogey-man raining on Lee and Malaysia’s parade.
Lin Dan is also also expected to give it a miss. Thereafter, Chen was always ahead by a couple of points, and simply piled on the pressure as he sensed that Lee’s reserves were dwindling. And in the end, Lee was left heartbroken, again. He fought his way back to the top of the rankings after returning from a doping ban past year for a final shot at Olympic glory.
Chen followed in the footsteps of compatriot Lin Dan, the gold medallist at Beijing 2008 and London 2012, though his campaign ended in disappointment as he was beaten 15-21, 21-10, 21-17 by Denmark’s Viktor Axelsen in the bronze medal match. Sadly, this particular 74-minute encounter failed to scale the heights.
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On the achievement of the national badminton team, which also won a silver medal each for the men’s doubles and mixed doubles games, Liow congratulated Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong and the mixed team of Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying.
