In a heartwarming gesture of respect towards the opponent, Malaysia badminton coach Hendrawan, on Sunday, shared his own shoes to Jamaica’s Samuel Ricketts, who damaged his shoes mid-match, during a contest between the two nations at the ongoing 2022 Commonwealth Games.
Ricketts damaged his right sole in the middle of the match and had no option than to cut off the sole from one side to continue playing. As soon as Hendrawan noticed Ricketts step on to the court with a half-torn shoe, the coach rushed to the shuttler and offered the shoe he was wearing so that the Jamaican could play comfortably.
However, Rickets went on to lose his singles match 12-21 and 16-21. In the doubles match too, Tokyo Olympic bronze medallists Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik beat the pair of Rickets-Joel Angus 21-7, 21-11.
Despite this, Jamaica bagged an easy 4-1 victory against Zambia in their next group match. However, they were not able to make it to the quarterfinals.
Coming back to the games, Malaysia powered into the badminton mixed team quarterfinals after completing a comfortable 5-0 win over Jamaica in Group D. The Malaysian team continued their good run by smashing South Africa 5-0 in the previous match and they will take on Sri Lanka in quarterfinals on Sunday.
In the badminton mixed team event, India beat arch-rivals Pakistan and Sri Lanka 5-0 each and bagged 4-1 against Australia. India also defeated South Africa 3-0 and booked their berth in the semi-finals of the games.
Meezan 
Anamika 
Harsh