PETALING JAYA: The young men’s doubles shuttlers in the national team should be given time and space to develop into top pairs.
The Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) currently boast several upcoming pairs like Asian Junior Championships silver medallists Aaron Tai-Kang Khai Xing, Mohd Haikal Nazri-Choong Hon Jian and Yap Roy King-Wan Arif Wan Junaidi, and while it is inevitable that there will be a lot of excitement about the potential of these pairs, national coaching director Rexy Mainaky (pic) has warned against heaping too many expectations on his charges.
Currently, Hon Jian-Haikal are ranked No. 19 in the world while Roy King-Arif and Aaron-Khai Xing are No. 34 and No. 75 respectively.
The other BAM pairs ranked above the trio are Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik (No. 3) and Man Wei Chong-Tee Kai Wun (No. 16) while newly crowned Japan Open champions Goh Sze Fei-Nur Izzuddin Rumsani (No. 12) are set to leave the national body and turn independent on Sept 1.
Another independent pair Ong Yew Sin-Teo Ee Yi are ranked No. 23 in the world.
Rexy has experience with dealing with increased attention on young talented pairs, who then struggle to live up to their early hype.
“When I was coaching Koo Kien Keat and Tan Boon Heong, the former was 21 and the latter 19 when they started producing good results and received a lot of attention from media and fans,” said Rexy.
“People kept saying they were good and hyped them up and then they became inconsistent.
“I’m trying to stop the same thing from happening to our current young pairs like Aaron-Khai Xing and the others.
“I have to be careful and give them more time to learn from their seniors during joint training sessions and gain experience by playing in lower tier tournaments first.
“Let’s not put too much pressure on them and overhype them too soon,” added Rexy.
Kien Keat-Boon Heong were undoubtedly one of the most exciting men’s doubles pairs that Malaysia produced as they went on to capture gold in the Asian Games, silver in the World Championships and won the All-England title among others but failed to consistently produce good results and arguably, did not reach their full potential.
Rexy is right to be cautious and protect his players as he hopes to develop them into world beaters.
The Indonesian will discuss plans for the players with the other coaches leading up to the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics.
“We have many tournaments coming up in the next few years like the SEA Games, Commonwealth and Asian Games before the Olympics and we will be planning for all these next week,” said Rexy.
“Now, many coaches are away for the Korean Open in Seoul and once they are back, we will start planning.
“In the men’s doubles, we have depth as there are four or five pairs with potential to challenge our No. 1 pair Aaron-Wooi Yik leading up to the next Olympics, so this is good.”
