PETALING JAYA: We did not achieve the targets set by our Project 24 but we are almost there, says Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) secretary general Datuk Kenny Goh.
Five years ago, Project 24 was established to win the World Championship title, end the country’s long wait for the elusive Olympic gold in Paris and reach the final of the prestigious Thomas Cup.
While men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik did create history by capturing the world crown in 2022, the other two goals still remain out of reach.
Kenny, though, believes that the country is not too far away from the coveted Olympic gold and the Thomas Cup crown.
In the Paris Olympics, men’s doubles pair Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik narrowly missed out on the final before bouncing back to win bronze.
Another bronze was delivered by men’s singles player Lee Zii Jia, who left the BAM in 2022 to turn independent.
Speaking during a post-Olympics press conference, Kenny said: “If you see, Aaron-Wooi Yik gave their all and nearly made it into the final in Paris. They could not get to the final but fought hard again to win the bronze.
“I have mixed feelings as we did not achieve the target (of winning gold). I wish we could have done better. But we were so close to reaching the final and our players fought their hearts out to win bronze.
“But we are nearly there. In the Thomas Cup (in May) and Sudirman Cup (last year), we were almost there too. Some people say Malaysia are an ‘almost’ team.
‘‘We need to find ways to cross the finish line.”
The team also lost in the semi-finals in the Thomas and Sudirman Cup to China and South Korea respectively.
Kenny added that the BAM will conduct a thorough post-mortem to see where the national body went wrong in missing out on the gold.
“We wanted to win the gold very badly but we could not achieve our target. Our players and coaches though gave their best,” said Kenny.
‘’Give us some time to conduct a thorough review to find where we went wrong,” said Kenny.
‘’We will do the due process and come up with a plan for the next Olympics in 2028 in Los Angeles.
“A new Olympic cycle is starting now and we also have other major tournaments like the SEA Games and Sudirman Cup next year, Asian Games, Thomas Cup and Commonwealth Games in 2026, so it’s time for us to reach new milestones.”
