KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 — Rising men’s singles shuttler Eogene Ewe Eon will lead the national team’s challenge at the BWF World Junior Championships 2023 in Spokane, Washington, the United States, from September 25 to October 8.
Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) said apart from world junior number three Eogene, 2023 Malaysia International Challenge men’s doubles champions Kang Khai Xing – Aaron Tai and 2023 Dutch Junior International women’s singles semi-finalist Siti Zulaikha Muhammad Azmi will also feature in Spokane.
In a statement, it said the players were selected based on their junior world rankings and performance in the past six months, in addition to inputs from the panel of junior coaches led by Pang Cheh Chang and Hazwan Jamaluddin.
Meanwhile, BAM youth development deputy director Joanne Quay said in the same statement that she was pleased to see the players training hard ahead of the tournament.
“After the Asian Championships, we identified areas that required attention. Over the last few weeks, the players have been pushing hard in training, and we are pleased with their commitment and discipline. We know it will be difficult going up against the other teams,” she said.
In October last year, Malaysia failed to reach the quarter-finals of the World Junior Championships in Santander, Spain and finished the mixed team event in ninth place after defeating Denmark 4 – 1.
To make matters worse, it was also the first time no national player qualified for the quarter-finals of the singles competition in Spain.
The national juniors also displayed a lacklustre performance at the 2023 Asian Junior Championships (AJC) in Yogyakarta in July when they lost 3 – 0 to defending champions Thailand in the quarter-finals of the mixed team event, and none of the players qualified for the semi-finals of the singles competition.
Here is a full list of players selected for the BWF World Junior Championships 2023 in Spokane:
Men’s: Eogene Ewe Eon, Muhammad Faiq Masawi, Bryan Jeremy Goonting, Aaron Tai, Kang Khai Xing, and Low Han Chen.
Women’s: Chan Wen Tse, Chong Jie Yu, Ong Xin Yee, Siti Zulaikha Muhammad Azmi, and Carmen Ting.
— Bernama
