PETALING JAYA: The national junior shuttlers competing in the World Junior Championships from Sept 25-Oct 8 in the United States will train alongside the senior players after losing their junior development director Datuk Misbun Sidek (pic).
The other junior players will continue their current schedule with their respective coaches.
However, this arrangement is temporary as Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) deputy president Datuk V. Subramaniam said they would find a replacement for Misbun after the world junior meet.
The potential candidates to replace Misbub are being identified.
“We hope that when the juniors train with the seniors, they will have some exposure to different coaching from the seniors and fresh ideas for their gameplay,” said Subramanian at a press conference at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara yesterday.
“This will be a good chance for them to prepare for the tournament.”
However, it is an added burden for the senior coaches who already have much on their plate, especially after the recent Korean and Japan Opens where none of the Malaysians reached the quarter-finals.
Subramaniam also confirmed that doubles coaching director Rexy Mainaky will continue his role as head of the junior doubles department while other arrangements for the juniors will be made in time.
“In a situation like this, coaches will need to work together to support the players at BAM,” said Subramaniam.
Misbun’s decision to leave after rejoining the BAM for a second stint in 2017 was made after a lengthy discussion with coaches, players, and various stakeholders.
His contract was supposed to last until the end of the year.
“Misbun has done his best but unfortunately, the results are not there,” said Subramaniam.
“We decided that it is time to revamp the training for juniors and implement new training programmes.”
The junior team under Misbun returned from the Asia Junior Championships earlier this month empty-handed.
It was the second major tournament where the juniors failed to win any medals after also performing badly in the world junior meet last year in Santander, Spain.
“We will do a post-mortem on the tournament soon to further understand what went wrong and where we can improve.”
