Mixed Team Gold Perfect Birthday Gift For Shuttler Letshanaa

SIBU, Aug 20 (Bernama) -- The mixed team badminton gold medal which Selangor won today happens to be the perfect gift for young national women’s singles shuttler K. Letshanaa, who turned 21 yesterday.

And that, she said, is something she will treasure for a long time, more so since this will be her last appearance in the Malaysia Games (SUKMA) as she will be overaged when the 2026 edition comes along.

“It is a memorable one since my birthday was yesterday and I celebrated at the Sarawak SUKMA. So, it’s kind of a memorable thing (for me),” she told reporters after Selangor had defeated the Federal Territories (FT) 3-1 in the final at the Sibu Indoor Stadium.

Commenting on her performance in the final, Letshanaa said she gave it her everything as she wanted to show her teammates that they too can play more aggressively and confidently in their matches.

“I wanted my teammates to stay determined. I am very happy to have contributed the first point,” she said.

In the final, Letshanaa breezed past FT’s Lee Kay Xin 21-8, 21-6 in women’s singles to set the tone for their victory over FT.

Meanwhile, Selangor head coach Slamet Widiyanto was glad that they got their strategy spot-on.

“Of course, we knew we would have problems defeating FT’s Justin Hoh Shou Wei in men’s singles… he’s a good player.

“So, we focused on women’s singles, women’s doubles and mixed doubles to get the points and it worked as planned,” she said.

Slamet was proven right when Justin clinched the only point for FT when he downed Selangor’s Kim Sheng Chua 12-21, 21-7, 21-6 in men’s singles.

-- BERNAMA