Living legend of Aussie Table Tennis wins ninth career medal

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Ian Chadband / AAP News

 

It is the ninth career medal of the legend of Aussie table tennis, but alas the gold medal remains elusive. The silver medal was the Table Tennis Team’s sixth medal of the Birmingham campaign, a new record for an Australian Team at the Commonwealth Games.

 

Alas, for the tireless Jian Fang Lay, the frustrating wait goes on.

On the final day of her sixth Commonwealth Games, the queen of Australian table tennis grabbed the ninth medal of her distinguished career on Monday.

Yet once again, for Melbourne’s try-try-and-try again 49-year-old mum of two, it was of the wrong hue.

Striving to at last strike that elusive gold after 20 years of perseverance, Lay and her partner Minhyung Jee were comprehensively beaten 11-1 11-8 11-8 by the brilliant Singapore pairing of Tianwei Feng and Jian Zeng in the women’s doubles final.

Singles champion Feng and Zeng had played a classic final against each other and were even more formidable as a combination as they took only 22 minutes to demolish Lay’s dream again in the gold medal game.

It left the Chinese-born Lay with a magnificent tally of five silvers and four bronze, with the big question remaining whether she’ll soldier on to compete in her home town in 2026 to have one more crack at gold.

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