No action yet for juniors as BAM postpone two tourneys

Our junior shuttlers will have to wait a little longer before they get to see any action.

This comes after the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) postponed two tournaments – the National Under-21 Championships and the 100PLUS National Junior Circuit – scheduled for next month until November.

The National Junior Circuit was supposed to hold the Division 1, 2 and 3 competitions in Alor Setar, Kangar and Ipoh from Oct 13-18 while the National Under-21 meet was slated for Oct 27-31 at Juara Stadium in Bukit Kiara.

BAM secretary Datuk Kenny Goh said the decision to defer these competitions was because it is deemed too risky to allow interstate travel at the moment.

The country has recorded a spike in the Covid-19 cases since Sept 6, with Sabah and Kedah among the badly affected states.

“For now, our plan is to defer these events by a month,” said Kenny.

“We’re still undecided on the venue and dates as we’re closely monitoring the situation in the country.

“There’s been suggestions to relocate the National Junior Circuit in Kuala Lumpur and we’re looking into it.

“We’re constantly in touch with the MOE (Ministry of Education).

“We want to come up with the best decision as the tournaments involve school kids.

“In fact, the MOE have discouraged us from holding any tournaments.

“We’ll see how it goes.”

To date, the BAM had successfully staged two post-MCO internal tournaments for the elite and backup players – the Invitational Championships last month and last week’s President’s Cup.

The national junior team are in need of highly competitive games as they are preparing for the World Junior Championships in Auckland, New Zealand, in January.

Also lined up in the revised BAM tournament calendar for the remainder of the year is the 100PLUS Interstate Under-12 and Under-16 Team Championships (Nov 26-29) and National Junior Circuit Grand Prix Finals (Dec 2-6) and the National Championships (Dec 16-20).