RIO DE JANEIRO, Aug 18 — Indonesia’s Ahmad Tontowi and Liliyana Natsir stomped on Malaysia’s dreams of a maiden Olympic gold medal at badminton yesterday by hammering Chan Peng Soon and Goh Liu Ying in the mixed doubles final.

Roared on to the title by dozens of feverish home fans, the world number three pairing pounced all over the Malaysians from the first point at the Riocentro and never dropped the pressure in the 21-14, 21-12 win.

Tontowi and Natsir captured their delegation’s first gold of the Rio Games and seventh in Olympic badminton, closing out the match when Goh netted the last shuttlecock.

Malaysia have waited 52 years for an Olympic champion but their hopes of breaking the drought were extinguished in just 44 minutes by the rampant Indonesians. — Reuters