Friday February 8, 2013
Zakry-Fairuzizuan to go all out for Guangzhou ticket
PANDAMARAN: It’s no secret that there is a healthy rivalry between shuttlers from the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) and the professional clubs in the country.
And KLRC’s Mohd Zakry Abdul Latif-Mohd Fairuzizuan Mohd Tazari are ready to show that they can go one up on the national shuttlers as the qualifying period for the World Championships hots up.
Despite leaving the national scene about two years ago, the reigning Taiwan Open champions are still in with a chance to qualify for the world meet in Guangzhou in August.
A country can have a maximum of three pairs in the world meet if all of them are ranked in the top 24 bracket by the end of April. Malaysia have five pairs in the top 24.
They include three BAM pairs – Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong (No. 2), Hoon Thien How-Tan Wee Kiong (No. 10) and Lim Khim Wah-Goh V Shem (No. 19) – and two club pairs – Gan Teik Chai-Ong Soon Hock (No. 22) and Fairuzizuan-Zakry (No. 23).
Two years ago, BAM dropped professionals Teik Chai-Tan Bin Shen, although the duo had qualified on merit, to accommodate their own national players.
This time, BAM coaching and training chairman Ng Chin Chai has made it clear that only those who had qualified on merit would get to go.
Zakry has vowed to go all out with Fairuzizuan to improve on their ranking in the next three months.
“I’m glad that BAM will decide on the qualifiers on merit this time. Fairuzizuan and I will surely fight to make the cut,” said Zakry.
“We can’t afford to relax. We’ll compete in every tournament on the schedule to squeeze in.
“It was unfortunate that we lost some valuable time when I got married last year and took some time off. Then this year, Fairuzizuan injured his ankle during the Korean Open. However, we’re back in training now.”
Said Fairuzizuan: “It is good to have this healthy rivalry as it keeps everyone on his toes. Anything can happen at this stage. The pairs ahead of us can slip up in their rankings and we can move up. We are not giving up until the end.”
Fairuzizuan-Zakry will take part in three back-to-back tournaments – German Open (Feb 26-March 3), All-England (March 5-10) and Swiss Open (March 12-17).
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