'Thank you, Pearly' - Thinaah's heartfelt message for partner

“Pearly, without you I wouldn’t be here on the biggest stage of every athlete's dream. The Olympic Games.”

This was the message from Thinaah Muralitharan to her doubles partner Pearly Tan after the pair failed to bag the bronze medal in the Paris Olympics.

Taking to Instagram, the national shuttler noted how her partner had struggled with sickness and injuries, resulting in the pair only being able to train for less than two weeks before heading to France for their training camp.

“I kept telling myself to stay strong even though there were times I felt helpless training without you. Even during the camp, we had misunderstandings and I just wanted to be done with the Olympics and go back home.

“But once we arrived at the village, I felt different and the feeling was indescribable. We did have awkward moments but once the competition started, we were one. We had each other throughout the games, and throughout every single rally. There was not one point that I didn’t feel motivated.

“Who would have imagined that the both of us could reach the semi-finals of the Olympics after seeing we were grouped in the ‘Group of Death/Group Maut’. To be playing till the last day of the games,” she added.

Thinaah also recounted the “sleepless nights and pressure” at the Olympic Village as the duo defied the odds to become the first Malaysian women’s doubles pair to make it to the semi-finals.

“Point by point, we made it! We made it this far…

“I know going home without a medal is very disappointing but we also have to praise ourselves because not everyone will be there during our worst moments but we will always have each other. Only we know what we went through.

“Only we experienced those feelings. So I want to take this time to thank you for being there for me all this time, sorry for disappointing you at times,” she said.

Whatever the future holds

Thinaah added that she does not know what the future holds or what will happen in the next four years till the next Olympics. However, she is grateful and happy to be able to share her precious moment with Tan.

“From the bottom of my heart, Thank you so much, Pearly,” she said.

Yesterday, the national shuttlers, ranked 12 in the world, fell to the fourth-seed pair from Japan in their quest to return home with the bronze medal.

Tan, in her Instagram post, apologised for not winning a medal for Malaysia.

Describing it as an “unfulfilled dream”, she said: “Hoping that I will still have the opportunity to stand on this stage again.”

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