KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 21 — The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) will ensure that its existing women’s singles players participate in three to five international tournaments from next year to increase their exposure and improve their world rankings.
National women’s singles coach James Chua said the four players under his care at the moment lack the experience of playing in major tournaments and facing higher-ranked players.
The four are Tan Zhing Yi who is ranked 182nd, Wong Ling Ching (335th), Siti Nurshuhaini Azman (199th) and Oo Shan Zi who is not listed in the world ranking.
“BAM has decided that they will participate in at least three to five tournaments from next year and from there we will evaluate how they perform while on the court.
“After about three months we will discuss again to set the key performance indicators (KPI), or how many more tournaments they have to participate in thereafter because they actually lack playing experience,” he said when contacted by Bernama.
Chua said discussions will be held with the BAM coaching staff in January next year to ensure that the restructuring of the development of the women’s singles sector can be done in the best way to produce quality players who are able to give stiff competition on the court.
“Perhaps the training method will be different because there are only four players left here (women’s singles).
“However, we are positive that the players will be able to do their best and if I can share a little next year, I want to focus on training on the court because now it’s like 50 per cent (on the court) and, 50 (physical training),” he said.
On December 19, Akademi Badminton Malaysia (ABM) chief executive officer Michelle Chai was reported as saying that said BAM had decided to release 12 players from the governing body for next year’s session.
Five women’s singles shuttlers were dropped by BAM namely Myisha Mohd Khairul; Eoon Qi Xuan; Joanne Ng; Khor Jing Wen and Loh Zhi Wei.
In the meantime, the country’s leading women’s singles player, S. Kisona, made the decision to turn professional to allow her to have enough time to recover from a knee injury.
— Bernama
