Heartbreak in India

PETALING JAYA: Shuttler Liew Daren has revealed how he cried and how the team’s dressing room was in complete silence after Malaysia were pipped to the Thomas Cup by Japan in 2014. Daren failed to clinch the winning point that could have ended nation’s frustrating wait for the coveted title since 1992 as he went down 12-21,21-18,17-21 to Takuma Ueda in the deciding third singles battle in New Delhi, India. Malaysia lost 2-3 in the gripping final that lasted nearly five hours. Daren, then the team captain, may have lost the match but he did capture the hearts of many Malaysians with his fighting spirit. But it was Ueda who had the last laugh as Japan lifted the trophy for the first time since the prestigious team competition’s inception in 1949. Six years after the loss that he says was the lowest point of his career, Daren, 32, has opened up on the emotions he experienced after being within touching distance of becoming a national hero. “I felt like I could have won after pulling off that comeback in the second game and I wanted to win it so much... for the country, the team and myself too, as I hadn’t won even a match (he lost in group stage matches against India and Germany). As an independent shuttler, Daren did make amends four years later by reaching the semi-finals of the 2018 World Championships in Nanjing, China. As a losing semi-finalist, he picked up a bronze medal, making him only the third Malaysian medallist in World Championships history after Lee Chong Wei (three silvers – London 2011, Guangzhou 2013 and Jakarta 2015) and Wong Choong Hann (silver – Birmingham 2003). No one expected him to go far but he went on to gun down higher-ranked players like Indonesia’s Jonatan Christie, India’s K. Srikanth and Japan’s Kanta Tsuneyama before finding his match in eventual champion Kento Momota.