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Wednesday October 28, 2009

Malaysia admit they have much catching up to do with Chinese juniors

MALAYSIA readily admit that they have plenty of catching up to do to reach China’s standards in the junior badminton scene.

The national juniors pulled the rug from under the Chinese in the Asian junior mixed team final in Kuala Lumpur in July. But in Alor Setar on Monday night, China were in a class of their own and scored a 3-0 win over Malaysia to lift the world title. They won the mixed doubles, boys’ singles and boys’ doubles matches convincingly.

Malaysia’s singles coach Sun Chenhua admitted that there was nothing they could have done to stop China from taking the title.

“Of course we are disappointed over not getting the gold medal. Our players gave their all but unfortunately, it was not enough against this Chinese team,” he said.

“The home crowd support helped tilt the balance a little towards Malaysia’s favour but we lost to a much stronger side.”

Malaysia’s chances of winning the final were further diminished with Iskandar Zulkarnain out of the line-up after coming down with a bout of food poisoning.

Malaysia’s most promising performer in Alor Setar, Tee Jing Yi, also did not see action in the dead girls’ singles match.

Team manager Hou Kim Tho pointed out that there was no shame in Malaysia’s defeat.

“Our initial target was just to get into the semi-finals. Several years ago, qualifying for the final of a mixed team event would have been unthinkable for Malaysia,” he said.

“We have now built up our all-round strength to challenge for the title strongly. This is a step in the right direction in junior badminton development in the country.”

The Malaysian shuttlers now look at challenging for the five individual titles at stake.

Said Chenhua: “In the Asian championships, we celebrated victory in the team final but failed to rise to the occasion in the individual events. I hope the opposite happens here. The defeat to China will help spur the players to make up in the individual competitions.”

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