Magnaye-Pomar pair rules Sydney Int’l Badminton

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines’ Peter Gabriel Magnaye and Thea Marie Pomar hammered out a shock 21-9, 21-19 victory over the fourth-seed pair of Oliver Leydon-Davis and Anona Pak of New Zealand Saturday night to snare the mixed doubles gold in the Sydney International Badminton 2019 in Australia.

It was a proud performance for the Magnaye-Pomar tandem as they also brought down fifth pick Po Li-Wei and Yu Chien Hui of Chinese Taipei, 21-13, 21-11, in the semifinals the day before that paved the way for their Cinderella finish.

Magnaye and Pomar’s other wins came at the expense of No. 6 Michael Soon How Lim and Victoria He, 21-13, 21-13, in the first round, Dylan Soedjasa and Justine Villegas of Australia, 21-12, 21-16, in the next and Australia’s Ming Chuen Lim and Yingzi Jiang, 21-15, 21-17, in the quarterfinals.

Magnaye tried to make it a twin-kill as he teamed up with Alvin Morada in the men’s doubles only to run into the gritty pair of Chen Xin-Yuan and Lin Yu-Chieh of Chinese Taipei and absorbed a heartbreaking 21-9, 11-21, 15-21 defeat to settle for silver.

The Magnaye-Morada duo failed to sustain its pulse-pounding, come-from-behind 21-19, 18-21, 26-24, win over Liao Kuan Hao and Po Li-Wei of Chinese Taipei in the semis the night before in a game where the Filipinos fought five match points before prevailing.

It was an impressive performance still for the Philippines as it ended up with a haul of one gold, a silver and a bronze courtesy of Morada and Alyssa Yasbel Leonardo in the mixed doubles.

Morada and Leonardo made it as far as the semis before they were ambushed by Leydon-Davis and Pak, 15-21, 18-21.