After tough last-eight fight, Liek Hou strolls into final

SHUTTLER Cheah Liek Hou was back to his swaggering best as he stormed into the final of the men’s singles SU5 (upper body impairment) final in the Asian Para Games.

Liek Hou claimed a dominant 21-7, 21-9 win over Taiwan’s Fang Jen-yu in the last four at the Binjiang Gymnasium in Hangzhou yesterday.

A day earlier, the reigning Paralympic and world champion had struggled in his last eight match against Japan’s Taiyo Imai before coming through 21-17, 18-21, 21-16.

Liek Hou ensured that there was no repeat of the same as he stayed focused throughout the match against Jen-yu, not allowing the latter much room to score points.

Liek Hou will take on archrival Dheva Anrimusthi of Indonesia in the final today.

Dheva was in equally uncompromising mood as he blew away compatriot Suryo Nugroho 21-11, 21-10 in the other semi-final tie.

Liek Hou was pleased after getting his strategy spot on in the last four.

“I used the right strategy in my match today (yesterday),” said Liek Hou.

“I stayed patient with my shots and did not rush to attack and this paid off.”

Liek Hou though could not make it a double joy for himself after he went down fighting 21-19, 15-21, 12-21 along with Fareez Anuar in the doubles to reigning world champions Dheva and Hafizh Briliansyah.

“We tried our best but we could not get the win,” said Liek Hou.

“Fareez pulled a muscle in his leg during the match and I tried to cover for him but it was tough for us.

“We are disappointed but we need to learn from this defeat.

“We managed to give our opponents a close fight and hopefully we can do even better next time.”

Liek Hou is now out to avenge the defeat to Dheva in the singles final today.

“My matches with Dheva before this have all been close affairs,” said Liek Hou.

“I will go all out to win the gold tomorrow (today).”

Meanwhile, Mohd Amin Burhanuddin brought further cheers to the Malaysian camp after making it into the final of the men’s singles SL4 (lower limb impairment) with a 23-21, 21-9 victory over India’s Sukant Kadam.

Amin will face another Indian Suhas Yathiraj in the gold medal match today.