MUAR: Datuk Lee Chong Wei will be greeted as a national hero when he returns home today although he failed to win the gold medal in the badminton event at the London Olympics on Sunday.
Youth and Sports Deputy Minister Datuk Razali Ibrahim said Chong Wei had shown the determination and spirit to battle his greatest rival Lin Dan.
“He had shown determination in the game to win the gold medal at the event. The whole population in Malaysia had been waiting for it,” he told reporters after watching the match between the two top players in the world at his residence in Seri Menanti, here Sunday night.
He said that everyone should accept the fact that in sports, there would always be winners and losers.
Chong Wei lost to Lin Dan 21 -15, 10-21 and 19-21.
Razali congratulated Chong Wei for contrbuting a silver medal for Malaysia. — Bernama