Juniors outperform seniors in 2018
KUAL A LUMPU R: The inconsistent performance of the senior players in various international championships this season has dampened the achievement of national badminton.
Ho w e v e r , b e h i n d the lackadaisical performances of the senior athletes, the sport still brought glory to Malaysia with the excellent performances of the junior squad such as the women’s singles player Goh Jin Wei, men’s singles player Lee Zhi Jia and women’s doubles pair Pearly Tan-Toh Ee Wei who delivered excellent performances.
Kudos must be given to Jin Wei with the second championships at the World Junior Badminton Championship and gold medal at the Youth Olympic Games while Zii Jia ended a 14-year drought to win the Taiwan Open in October.
Pearly and Ee Wei won the silver medal at the World’s Junior Badminton Championship.
Badminton Association of Malaysia ( BAM) president Datuk Seri Mohamad Norza Zakaria is fully aware of the relative performance of the senior and junior squads.
‘’ Indeed, there is a lack of achievement at the high level but we must look at the success at the back-up level which is much better. The focus this year is on the development of the junior players. If we look at their achievements
The focus this year is on the development of the junior players.
especially Zii Jia, Jin Wei they have a bright chance to the Olympics,’’ he told Bernama when met recently.
Badminton is the heartbeat of national sports because based on the participation record in major competitions, the badminton players were the saviors in achieving the gold medal target of the national contingent.
But Mohamad Norza stressed that BAM viewed seriously the deterioration in the performances of the senior players because next season’s appearance was very important in the mission to reap a slot to the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
Despite the less encouraging performance of the senior players, two national mixed doubles pairs Chan Peng Soon- Goh Liu Ying and Goh Soon Huat- Shevon Lai qualified to participate in the 2018 BWF World Tour Finals on Dec 12-16 in Guangzhou, China.
But both pairs lost in the group level matches.
Peng Soon- Liu Ying’s best achievement this year was to become champions at the United States Open and the Thailand Master other than emerging runner up at the Indonesian Open and Australian Open.
Meanwhile, the Soon HuatShevon pair were champions in the Singapore Open and German Open.
The fate of the men’s doubles Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong, who won the silver medal at the Rio Olympic Games in 2016, differed as they could not repeat their winning rhythm when their failed to reap any international championship this year. their best achievement was only to emerge as runner up in the Malaysia Masters.
The V She n - We e K iong combination who were the winners of the gold medal at the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glassgow, Scotland, were forced to be contented with the bronze medal at the Commonwealth Games this time at Gold Coast in April.
The dent in the national pride in badminton at Gold Coast was somewhat assuaged with two gold medals via national men’s singles player, Datuk Lee Chong Wei and women’s doubles, Chow Mei KuanVivian Khoo and a silver medal in the team event.
But the national badminton squad failed to contribute a gold medal at the Jakarta-Palembang Asian Games after they were impacted by the withdrawal of Chong Wei in September due to health reasons.
Numerous rumours on the former world’s number one player went viral on social media following Chong Wei’s action in keeping mum and avoiding the media.
A month after that, the national sports arena was rocked by a report that Chong Wei was confirmed to be suffering from level one nose cancer after he took part in the Indonesian Open.
Subsequent ly, Chong Wei wit hdrew f rom t he World Badminton Championship and the Asian Games as he had to undergo treatment in Taiwan for almost four months and now he is declared cancer-free.
Before the setback, Chong Wei had exhibited consistency in his game, including by maintaining the Commonwealth Games gold medal and recording his 12th victory at the Malaysia Open.
The national badminton arena was also marred by game fixing involving former World Junior champion Zulfadli Zulkiffli and Tan Chun Sean. Both of them were professional players.
Zulfadli and Chun Sean were banned for 20 years and 15 years, respectively, from involvement in any badminton activity.
The punishments could be regarded as putting an end to the careers of both the players in badminton. — Bernama
Datuk Seri Mohamad Norza Zakaria, BAM president