PETALING JAYA: Carolina Marin’s hopes of defending her Olympics women’s singles gold have gone up in smoke. The 27-year-old has announced yesterday that she will not be making her third Olympics appearance in Tokyo next month after being hit by fresh injury concerns which needed surgery. In January 2019, Marin tore her right ACL during the Indonesian Masters final against Saina Nehwal, and she was sidelined for seven months. The latest injury meant that Marin has to forget about emulating former Chinese great Zhang Ning’s record of becoming back-to-back Olympic champion. Zhang Ning has two Olympic gold medals – Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.

Source: The Star June 01, 2021 23:26 UTC