Kenneth Jonassen
PETALING JAYA: The smile on Kenneth Jonassen says it all.
The Dane, who is in Kuala Lumpur just two days after he was announced as the new Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) singles head coach, is certainly excited to begin his job, after all it will be his first stint as a coach in the Asian region.
"This is a once in a life time chance to coach Malaysia. I'm excited for the new challenge," said Jonassen during a press conference at Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara on Monday.
"I've always been a fan of Malaysian badminton."
Jonassen, who agreed to take up the job after receiving a call from national coaching director Rexy Mainaky, will officially start his job in January and the ultimate goal is to win a gold medal for Malaysia in the Olympic Games.
He believes that Malaysia has the talents like Justin Hoh, Leong Jun Hao and Ng Tze Yong to make a mark in the men's singles. Although Jonassen only spent a little time meeting the players during a training session yesterday, he plans to get to know them better.
"Malaysia have talented players like Justin, Jun Hao and Tze Yong. I'll be meeting them soon, so that all of us will have the same ambition to succeed in the sport.
"I'll observe them for the first few weeks. It's not only about the players and coaches adapting to me and my style of coaching, but the first few weeks will also be for me to understand the culture here better.
"My ultimate goal is to lead the players to win the Olympics gold. We have two and half years to qualify players, and from now on to then, we have to get the players into the mix, and climb up the ranking."
Jonassen's singles coaches are K. Yogendran and Alvin Chew (men's singles) and Jeffer Rosobin, Misbun Ramdan (women's singles).
