Malaysia is headed for its best ever medal haul in the Olympics – one silver is in the bag, two more are certain and if all goes well, it could well be three or even four golds for the country.

Mixed doubles shuttlers Goh Liu Ying-Chan Peng Soon showed the way, stunning world No. 6 Xu Chen-Ma Jin 21-12, 21-19 in the semi-finals at the Rocentro Pavilion 4 in Rio de Janeiro on Monday.

The men’s double pair of Tan Wee Kiong and Goh V. Shem then upset China’s World No. 5 pair of Chai Baio and Hong and Hong Wei in a nail-biting three-game match last night.

Both pairs are assured of silver medals but could up their game and end Malaysia’s elusive search for gold.

The achievement of Liu Ying and Chan was especially remarkable considering that they were the first Malaysian pair to have qualified for the Olympics – in London four years ago. Then, they lost all their three preliminary round matches.

The world No. 11 Malaysians are assured of a silver, but they could go one up and become the first Malaysian gold medallists if they beat Tontowi Ahmad-Liliyana Natsir of Indonesia in the final today (11.30pm Malaysian time).

Malaysia clinched its first silver on Aug 9 through divers Pandelela Rinong-Cheong Jun Hoong in the women’s 10m platform synchro.

Both Liu Ying and Chan were grinning from ear to ear and overjoyed with their success – their third over the Chinese pair in 10 meetings.

“I’m excited,” said Liu Ying after their 45-minute win over Ma Jin-Xu Chen.

“I think the Chinese were under tremendous pressure as they were the silver medallists in London,” added the 27-year-old, who only resumed her partnership with Chan 18 months ago after surgery on both her knees.

“It seems so unlikely. I’m so happy we completed the job. The pressure was definitely on the Chinese. Our coach (Jeremy Gan) told us to cool down.

“It has always been my dream to play in an Olympic final,” said the 28-year-old Chan.

Tan and V. Shem followed up on their win over South Korean World No. 1 Lee Young-dae and Yoo Yeon-seong on Monday with the exciting semi-final win. They won the first game 21-18, lost the second tamely 12-21 before winning the rubber game 21-18.

In the final, they look likely to meet another Chinese pair of Fu Haifeng-Zhang Nan, who they had beaten in the preliminary rounds.

Top singles shuttler Datuk Lee Chong Wei remains Malaysia’s favourite to deliver a gold. At the last Games in London and the one before in Beijing he bagged silver. With Rio likely to be his swansong, Lee will be driven to bid Malaysian sports a golden goodbye.

Pandelela could also deliver another gold for the country when she takes part in her favourite event – the women’s 10m platform individual, with the semi-finals at 9pm tomorrow and the finals at 3am on Friday. At the London Olympics, she won a bronze in the event and will be looking to have a full complement of Olympic medals when she takes on the competition.

Malaysian chef de mission Tan Sri Mohamed Al Amin Abdul Majid was a happy man.

“My KPI (Key Performance Indicator) has been achieved,” he said after Liu Ying and Chan assured Malaysia of a second silver.

“Anything else now is a bonus,” said Al Amin.

Morten Frost, the technical director of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), was full of praise for the mixed doubles pair.

“The way they have come back in the last 18 months has been incredible. They have grown a lot in all aspects,” said the Dane.

SILVER IN THE HAND

Pandelela Rinong-Cheong Jun Hoong (women’s 10m platform synchro)

IN LINE FOR GOLD

Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying (mixed doubles)

Goh V Shem and Tan Wee Kiong (men’s doubles)

GOOD FOR GOLD

Lee Chong Wei (men’s singles) – Aug 20 (8.30pm)

Pandelela Rinong (women’s 10m platform individual) – Aug 19 (3am)

TODAY’S SCHEDULE

Badminton 7.30pm: Lee Chong Wei (men’s singles, quarter-finals) 11.30pm: Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying (mixed doubles final)

TOMORROW

Diving (Preliminary rounds) 2am: Pandelela Rinong (women’s 10m platform individual

NATIONAL INCENTIVE SCHEME

Gold: RM1mil (S$336,000)

(RM5,000 lifelong pension)

Silver: RM300,000

(RM3,000 lifelong pension)

Bronze: RM100,000

(RM2,000 lifelong pension)

RIO DE JANEIRO – Japan’s 15-year-old Mima Ito won the game that secured her country a women’s team bronze medal, triggering an emotional reaction from her team mate on Tuesday.

The world number nine defeated Feng Tianwei in the fourth singles to complete the 3-1 win.

As the winning ball was struck, Ito’s team mate Ai Fukuhara started crying, before the trio, which included Kasumi Ishikawa, waved and bowed to a boisterous crowd, the majority of whom had cheered them on.

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AFP, Reuters, The Straits Times

In the doubles, “Kasumi did a very good job and she got one point, but in my opinion it was worth five points…That gave us energy to carry on,” said Ai, who lost out narrowly on an individual medal to North Korea’s Song I KimXiaoxia Li.

“I couldn’t get the medal in the individual so this time I really committed myself to getting the medal and then going back to Japan,” she said.

Singapore’s Feng, the world number four, said her team mates Yu Mengyu and Zhou Yihan played very well, but she was not satisfied with her own performance.

“I didn’t adjust to the match very well,” she said. “I allowed myself to be stifled by the opponent, so I felt very gloomy on court,” she said.

Reigning champions China defend their gold against Germany in the final later on Tuesday evening.

If you watched Olympic track and field on Monday, you might have seen Ruth Jebet of Bahrain win the country’s first-ever Olympic gold medal, in the women’s 3,000-meter steeplechase.

The NBCSN television announcer described the 19-year-old as running for Bahrain for “financial reasons,” because she was born and raised in Kenya, and still lives and trains there. Jebet is just one example of tiny Middle Eastern nations paying big bucks to import top-notch African talent.

Bahrain’s Olympic track and field team is composed primarily of runners from Kenya and Ethiopia, along with more from Jamaica, Morocco and Nigeria. The team includes almost no runners born in Bahrain.

Eunice Kirwa won a silver medal in Sunday’s women’s marathon.

She, too, was born in Kenya, but transferred her eligibility to Bahrain. Including past Olympics, every medal ever won by Bahrain in the Olympics was by individuals born in Africa.

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AFP, Reuters, The Straits Times

This isn’t unique to Bahrain, as nearby countries Qatar, United Arab Emirates and Turkey have all been known in the past decade to pay to import elite athletes.

The International Association of Athletics Federations records when athletes change their national allegiances for international competition, and many of those athletes go on to run in the Olympics.

This practice of paying athletes to renounce citizenship in their home country to compete for another has led to all kinds of controversy – as well as some plain-old bad imagery.

Here’s an anecdote about what happened in 2003 to a 20-year-old Qatari runner named Saif Saaeed Shaheen, as reported by Bidoun magazine:

Until that August, Shaheen had been Stephen Cherono. He was not well-known in Kenya, where there is such a surfeit of world-class runners that few qualify for the national team.

Hardly anyone took notice when Cherono switched his citizenship and name in exchange for a lifetime monthly salary of $1,000 and the standard complement of elite trainers and cutting-edge facilities.

But then he started winning races. In a surprise victory at the World Championships in Athletics, held in Paris that spring, Shaheen broke the world record for the 3,000-meter steeplechase.

After crossing the finish line he fell to his knees and began to cross himself, but an official rushed to stop him; he then took a Qatari flag, wrapped it around his shoulders, and ran a victory lap; when he stepped up to the podium he forgot his new name and had to check the scoreboard.

His brother, a runner on the Kenyan team, finished fifth in the same race, and refused to congratulate him.

The story says it all. A huge portion of the imported athletes will actually change their names to sound more Arabic, even if they don’t remember it when it matters.

They switch citizenship for more money, better facilities and a guaranteed chance to make an Olympic team.

In countries like Kenya and Ethiopia, where there is so much talent depth, cracking the country’s top three just to qualify for the Olympics is a difficult task.

Then there’s the case of Mushir Salem Jawher, running for Bahrain in a marathon in Israel.

He said some things to the press about Israel that didn’t go over well with the big brass in Bahrain, and as a result got his citizenship revoked.

He begged his home country Kenya to take him back, and eventually competed again, this time for Kenya, under his original name Leonard Mucheru.

Rio Olympics 2016: Flag-Bearer Parade

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Reuters

In 2000, Qatar bought an entire weightlifting team from Bulgaria, which helped it win a bronze medal by Angel Popov, competing under the name Said Saif Asaad.

When you track those medal counts during the Olympics, just remember to take them with a grain of salt. Anything worth competing for is worth paying for.

Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal owns NBC Sports and NBC Olympics. NBC Olympics is the US broadcast rights holder to all Summer and Winter Games through the year 2032.