PETALING JAYA: World Junior Championships-bound players will be hoping to cash in on training with the national seniors in their preparation for this year’s competition in Washington from Sept 25-Oct 8.
Since the termination of Datuk Misbun Sidek as the national junior singles coaching director last week, the singles players have been training with the seniors.
Junior singles coach Hazwan Jamaluddin, who is handling the training with Misbun Ramdan Misbun and Goh Giap Chin, said the arrangement would be useful for the players looking to improve on their results this year.
Eogene Ewe, Mohd Faiq Haziq and Sng Wei Ming are the main players in the boys singles while girls’ singles Ong Xin Yee, Siti Zulaikha Azmi and Ung Yi Xing are likely to get the nod to play.
“In the boys’ and girls’ singles, we will try our best to produce better results but we do not want to give high hopes as the scenario at the junior events has evolved. So many countries are doing well while we are also unaware of the strength of several European countries,” said Hazwan.
“The current plan is to train with the seniors which is a good move and will help our players to improve.
Hazwan said it was not a one man’s show in the junior level.
“I am not making any decision by myself when it comes to team selection, I will consult with Ramdan and Giap Chin.
“I’ve also been getting inputs from elite coaches Hendrawan and (Datuk Tey) Seu Bock on our preparation for the worlds.”
Eogene and his singles teammates failed to win any medals at the Asian Junior meet in Yogyakarta last month and this led to Misbun’s removal.
Meanwhile, Malaysia will be looking to reach the quarter-finals of the mixed team event as after being drawn in Group C with England, Poland, Latvia and Austria.
Only the group champions will advance to the last eight and third seeds Malaysia should advance from their group.
In Santander, Spain last year, Malaysia were eliminated in the group stage after losing 1-4 to Indonesia.
