ALL-ENGLAND FAILURE A CAUSE FOR CONCERN
Exploits of Japan, China and Indonesia serve as a wake-up call
PETALING JAYA:
Malaysian badminton can only look with envy at Japan, China and Indonesia – and may even have to forget about winning major titles this year.
While Malaysian shuttlers flopped at the All-England, other nations continued to hog the limelight with their old and young stars.
In the prestigious tournament that ended on Sunday, Japan showed the world that they are the most balanced team.
They made three finals through Akane Yamaguchi (women’s singles), Yuki Fukushima-Sayaka Hirota (women’s doubles) and Yuta Watanabe-Arisa Higashino (mixed doubles). The youngsters WatanabeHigashino nailed the country’s first-ever All-England mixed doubles title.
Japan also have good men’s singles and doubles players – making them the favourites to win the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Bangkok, Thailand, from May 20-27.
Japan are helmed by head coach and mastermind Park Joo-bong while Malaysia’s Jeremy Gan is their newly recruited mixed doubles coach.
The irony is that Joo-bong was with Malaysia for four years – but Malaysia did not enjoy much success – raising the question whether the problem was with the coach or the players. Or is there a lack of strategists in the national set-up?
Jeremy’s immediate success showed that Malaysia’s loss was Japan’s gain.
Then, there is China gloating over their depth in the men’s singles.
A 22-year-old Shi Yuqi oozed class, determination and courage to beat six-time All-England champion Lin Dan in the final.
Sadly, in Malaysia, there is no one close to the standard of three-time Olympic silver medallistLee Chong Wei.
The 35-year-old Chong Wei does not have many good yearsleft – he
can probably push himself until the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games but players like Lee Zii Jia, Leong Jun Hao, Iskandar Zulkarnain Zainuddin, Cheam June Wei, Soong Joo Ven will have to step up.
In the men’s doubles, Indonesia’s Marcus Fernaldi Gideon-Kevin Sanjaya Sukamuljo are a class above the rest and they showed their prowess, wizardry and tenacity by beating veterans Mathias BoeCarsten Mogensen of Denmark 21-18, 21-17 to lift their second straight All-England title.
Except for Chong Wei and Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong, the rest failed to make the quarter-finals despite trying hard.
It’s obvious that Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) president Datuk Seri Norza Zakaria is unhappy – who wouldn’t be after so much money, time and resources have been invested to produce shuttlersof world standard.
While the next major event for the shuttlers is the Commonwealth Games in Gold Coast, Australia, from April 4-15, the real test will be at the Thomas-Uber Cup Finals and the Asian Games in Indonesia in August.
The shuttlers defied the odds at the 2016 Rio Olympics by winning three silvers when they were least expected to deliver. Let’s hope they can surprise us again.