NAYPYIDAW — The national badminton squad will return from the Myanmar SEA Games with their worst showing since the 2001 edition in Kuala Lumpur.

Shinta Mulia Sari and Yao Lei lost 23-21, 17-21 and 21-17 to Malaysia’s Vivian Kah and Khe Wei Woon in the women’s doubles semi-finals yesterday, and even though the world No 16 pair finished joint-third with Thailand’s Supajirakul Puttita and Taerattanachai Sapsiree by virtue of reaching the last four, the bronze was the only medal won by the nine-strong Singapore squad.

It is also a far cry from the gold and four bronzes won at the 2011 Games, and is the first time in 12 years that the Republic has won just a bronze.

To be fair, fewer medals were at stake this time as the team events had been omitted from this year’s Games. Yet, there had been initial hopes of a decent medal haul after top players like world No 1 Lee Chong Wei of Malaysia and Thailand’s Boonsak Ponsana (No 8) opted to compete at the Badminton World Federation’s Super Series finals instead.

But all those hopes were dashed after Singapore’s shuttlers were beaten in four out of their six events on the first day of competition on Tuesday.

More Singapore exits followed but Shinta and Yao Lei — who had recently reunited for the Games in a bid to improve on their 2011 bronze medal — subsequently raised hopes of a silver or gold by reaching the doubles semi-finals. But it was not to be.

Even though the Singapore Badminton Association (SBA) set up a taskforce last July to study the worrying trend of poor performances from the shuttlers in recent years, including their failure to reach the quarter-finals of this year’s Singapore Open, SBA senior technical manager Chua Yong Joo admitted that the squad could have done better in Naypyidaw.

“We expected more than one bronze here,” he said. “We didn’t expect to win as many medals as there are fewer events but I thought we could have done better.”

However, he believes the team will come back stronger when the 2015 Games are held in Singapore.

“If you look at this year, of course people will say things are not looking bright for 2015,” he said. “But we are really focusing on our National Intermediate Squad (NIS) and hopefully they will come up as we have a few who show potential. We will have to work doubly hard from now.”

A visibly disappointed Yao Lei, who won the 2010 Singapore Open with Shinta, said after yesterday’s defeat to the world No 18 Malaysians: “We were too rushed, made too many errors, and just didn’t play our best game. We have been practising so hard for a year and to lose to someone that we’ve never lost to before is just such a waste. Bronze medal is the same as last time, so I’m not satisfied.”

Singapore’s results in Myanmar:

Derek Wong - lost in first round of men’s singles

Gu Juan - lost in first round of women’s singles

Danny Bawa Christnanta and Vanessa Neo - lost in first round of mixed doubles

Vanessa Neo and Fu Mingtian - lost in first round of women’s doubles

Chen Jiayuan - lost in quarters of women’s singles

Shinta Mulia Sari and Yao Lei - lost in semis of women’s doubles