PETALING JAYA: Independent shuttler Goh Jin Wei has a tough task to match the best women’s singles players in the world judging by the results of the just concluded World Championships.
While South Korea’s world No. 1 An Se-young continues to set herself apart in the field with her historic gold medal and Spain’s former three-time world champion Carolina Marin makes an amazing comeback from injury by winning silver, Malaysia can only look on in envy.
Jin Wei, who is the country’s best player, went down 12-21, 14-21 to Se-young in the second round.
While there was no shame in losing to the eventual champion and best player this year, there is no denying that world No. 35 Jin Wei and the rest of the women’s singles players in the country are way behind the world’s top players.
S. Kisona, who was the only other representative for the country, did not even make it past the first round, losing 22-20, 19-21, 13-21 to Taiwan’s world No. 23 Pai Yu-po.
Kisona, who is currently the second ranked player in the country at No. 57 in the world, had quit the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) at the end of last year to deal with injury issues before beginning her professional career.
The 24-year-old had struggled with injury problems since her junior days and underwent a right knee surgery and felt leaving the national team was her best possible option.
As an independent player, results have not improved for Kisona as she has suffered early round exits in all her tournaments this year.
Meanwhile, Jin Wei’s health issues has been well documented with the 23-year-old still struggling to match her opponents in terms of fitness during matches.
Her coach Nova Armada though was positive that her stamina was slowly improving.
“Overall, I’m satisfied with her performance in the world meet,” said Nova.
“Her stamina was good but she lost to a superior player.
“Moving forward, I’m confident that Jin Wei will slowly get better.
“Our main goal is still to qualify for the 2024 Paris Olympics and we are working hard towards this.”
Jin Wei’s next tournaments are the back-to-back China Open (Sept 5-10) and Hong Kong Open (Sept 12-17) before she will turn her attention to the Asian Games in Hangzhou (Sept 23-Oct 8).
National player and world No. 62 K. Letshanaa was the other women’s singles player selected for the Asiad.
