BAM tasks Misbun, Soon Kit to prepare for Thomas Cup

KUALA LUMPUR: The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has tasked singles and doubles head coaches Datuk Misbun Sidek and Cheah Soon Kit to prepare a formidable squad over a period of two months to qualify for the Thomas Cup competition next year.

BAM president Datuk Seri Mohamad Norza Zakaria said players need to be identified and trained quickly to give enough time to prepare for the task.

The squad must be prepared early to play in the Asian Team Championships held in Kedah in February, since the tournament will serve as the qualifying round for the Thomas Cup final that will be hosted by Thailand in Bangkok, in May next year.

“I want Datuk Misbun and Soon Kit to name the players (line up) by January because 2018 is Thomas Cup year. We need to know who are our three men’s singles players and two of our best men’s doubles pairs,” he told reporters after chairing the BAM Coaching and Training Committee meeting at the Akademi Badminton Malaysia in Bukit Kiara here yesterday.

Mohamad Norza said based on his initial discussion with Soon Kit who is the men’s doubles head coach, the newly formed men’s doubles pairs comprising Goh V Shem-Teo Ee Yi and Tan Wee Kiong-Ong Yew Sin, were still in the assessment stage after playing two tournaments, namely the French Open and German Open.

He stated that any changes needed must be done quickly so as not to affect the preparations for the Thomas Cup next year.

In their first assignment as a new pair at the French Open, V Shem-Ee Yi who suffered food poisoning, lost to China’s Liu Cheng-Zhang Nan, 219, 21-9 but made it to the quarterfinals of the Bitburger Open (Germany), before losing to Indonesia’s Fajar Alfian-Muhammad Rian Ardianto, 21-12, 21-15.

Wee Kiong-Yew Sin lost to Denmark’s Matias Boe-Carsten Mogensen 16-21, 21-19, 19-21 in a closely fought battle at the French Open but just like the other pair, made it to the quarterfinals in Germany before going down to Denmark’s Kim Astrup-Anders Skaarup Rasmussen, 18-21, 12-21. – Bernama