Badminton: No sweet swansong for Clark and Pontin

The last appearance of Gill Clark and Nick Pontin, England's world bronze medallists, as a mixed doubles pair ended in defeat at the World Grand Prix Finals in Kuala Lumpur, writes James Leigh. Clark, who will partner Christ Hunt next year, and Pontin, who plans to pair up with Joanne Wright, went down 15-9, 15-7 to the world champions, Thomas Lund of Denmark and Katrine Bengtsson of Sweden, in the final. Clark and Pontin led 4-0 in the first game and fought hard all the way through. They had produced a good performance to reach the final with a straight-games win over Gillian Gowers and her Danish partner, Michael Sogaard. Joko Suprianto, the world champion, beat Alan Budi Kusuma when the Olympic champion retired with a knee injury after only one game of their men's singles semi-final. In today's final, Suprianto plays the All England champion, Heryanto Arbi, who inflicted the first defeat in three years in Stadium Negara on Malaysia's Rashid Sidek, by 17-14, 15-7.