Make something out of ‘zero’
TURN the “zero” medal target into gold.
That is Chong Wei Feng’s advice to men’s singles badminton players Lee Zii Jia and Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin.
Wei Feng should know what he is talking about. After all, he won the 2015 Sea Games men’s singles badminton gold in Singapore.
Wei Feng believes that Zii Jia and Iskandar can produce stunning results on home soil.
The former BAM player said Zii Jia and Iskandar need to razor sharp focus on their individual events and not let any disappointment in the team event hamper their performances.
“Usually the player goes through the team event first, followed by individual event. And if they can’t get a good score in the team event, my advice is to not carry it into the individual events,” he said.
“I remembered when I played in Singapore two years ago, I played without any pressure despite suffering from a toe injury because at the time my target wasn’t so high too.”
Wei Feng has also urged his compatriots to draw strength from knowing that no medal targets have been put on them, and to prove everyone wrong.
He expects Zii Jia to produce great results despite it being his Sea Games debut.
“His performance prior to this has been great Iskandar has vast experience and has been in the finals at ‘Open’ events and knows how to control that situation.”
BAM have put a two gold target but it is on the shoulders of women’s doubles Vivian Hoo-Woon Khe Wei and Chow Mei Kuan-Lee Meng Yean and mixed doubles Goh Soon Huat-Shevon Lai Jemie and Chan Peng Soon-Cheah Yee See. Ferzalfie Fauzi