Yen Mei announces return to competitive badminton

KUALA LUMPUR: National shuttler Ho Yen Mei (pic) has brought glad tidings to the national women’s singles team by announcing her return to competitive badminton.

The 22-year-old talented shuttler is nearing to a full recovery from a meniscus injury that she picked up in September.

She was in good form en route to winning the Russian Open title in July and stunned world No. 13 Sayaka Takahashi of Japan to reach the Vietnam Open quarter-finals in August.

The Russian Open was her first appearance in a competition since January after recovering from injuries and her two strong results even saw her jump from No. 157 to No. 104 in the world rankings.

National women’s singles head coach Datuk Tey Seu Bock is as pleased as punch that Yen Mei is returning to full-time training in a months’ time.

“Her recovery has been going well and she is looking good should return, which is a good news to us” said Seu Bock.

Seu Bock however, said it would be a difficult for Yen Mei to qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics as her ranking has dropped to 146 since her meniscus injury.

Qualification for the Olympics begin in May next year.

“It’ll be quite difficult to qualify for her because her ranking is low. She can only play in higher ranked tournaments if she is in the top 60,” he said.

Yen Mei will remain in Seu Bock’s core team together with world No. 29 Goh Jin Wei, Soniia Cheah (30), Lee Ying Ying (No. 40), S. Kisona (No. 86), M. Thinaah (No. 87) and Lim Yin Fun (No. 97) for next year’s challenge.

He wants two of his players to qualify for the Olympics and it looks like only Jin Wei and Soniia are on the right track.

Jin Wei won the Youth Olympic Games in October and the world junior championships last month and Soniia has been consistent in the World Tour tournaments.

“Jin Wei has performed well and Soniia has been quite consistent of late, but the challenge for them in 2019 is that they must prove they are in a class of their own.”

He hopes all his charges will show progress and not remain stagnant in the national team.