Zii Jia on track to qualify for Tokyo Olympics

KUALA LUMPUR: National badminton player, Lee Zii Jia is on track to qualify for the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan based on his current excellent performance.

Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) president Datuk Seri Mohamad Norza Zakaria said the 20-year-old player is seen as having the potential to be in action with national badminton ace Datuk Lee Chong Wei in the Olympics.

“The Olympic qualification will start from May 1 next year and if we could, we would want to place two to three players in each event for Olympics. I feel one of them is Zii Jia. We could have Chong Wei and Zii Jia and BAM is looking for another player to mount Malaysia’s challenge.

“I have also discussed with national singles chief coach, Datuk Misbun Sidek after the Korea Masters World Tour Super 300 on Zii Jia and as I said he is a potential player but we need to plan well to realise the objective,” he told the media after a presentation of contribution by Bank Rakyat to BAM yesterday.

For the record, Zii JiA who was labelled as a candidate to replace Chong Wei, earned his first championship this season after clinching the Taiwan Open on Oct 7, thus ending a 14-year wait for the country.

Nonetheless, Zia Jia’s attempt to bag his second title was thwarted when he lost to Son Wan Ho in the Korean Masters final on Sunday.

Earlier at the ceremony, BAM received a Scania bus from Bank Rakyat to facilitate BAM ferry players from Bukit Jalil Sports School to Academy Badminton Malaysia in Bukit Kiara as well as for other activities. The vehicle was presented by the bank’s managing director/president Datuk Zulkiflee Abbas Abdul Hamid.

Mohamad Norza said in the past two years, BAM had been cooperating with Bank Rakyat to carry out various corporate social responsibility (CSR) activities to promote badminton among the bank’s employees as well as its Nuri Club members. - Bernama