For the second day running, Malaysia claimed an Olympic badminton bronze medal following a stirring comeback after Lee Zii Jia prevailed in the men's singles third place playoff on Monday.
Lee overcame a slow start against India's Lakshya Sen to prevail 13-21 21-16 21-11 for his first medal at the Games, after his debut in Tokyo three years ago ended in the round of 16 with defeat to 2016 champion Chen Long of China.
Leading 4-1 on their head-to-head record, Sen initially looked headed for victory after being completely in control of the first game but -- just as compatriots Aaron Chia and Soh Wooi Yik did in the men's doubles bronze medal match on Saturday -- Lee was not going to go away without a fight.
The 7th seed soon found his range and rhythm and, having taken the second game by five points, would not let up thereafter.
All of a sudden, it was Sen who looked indecisive.
He let a shot go that landed well inside the baseline and almost did the same shortly after, before his last-ditch return left Lee with an easy put-away for a 9-2 lead in the third game.
Sen, who had done well to get this far, was arguably feeling the effects of an already impressive-but-gruelling campaign -- which saw him see off both third seed Jonatan Christie and 12th seed Chou Tien-chen in the group stage and quarterfinals respectively, as well as give defending champion Viktor Axelsen a real fight in the semis.
While the medal he was fighting for was bronze, everything the Malaysian touched was turning to gold as he overpowered his opponent, while even some desperate returns were comfortably finding their way back into play.
Despite Sen's best efforts to offer some resistance, Lee would ultimately cruise to a 21-11 win in the deciding game to join Chia and Soh on the podium -- marking a creditable campaign for Malaysia which also saw Pearly Tan and Thinaah Muralitharan finish fourth in the women's doubles .
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