PETALING JAYA: Dane Kenneth Jonassen has not even started work officially as the new national singles head coach but has already started building a good rapport with the shuttlers.
Jonassen will get to work at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara on Jan 4 and women’s singles player K. Letshanaa cannot wait to start training under him after having positive discussions with the 50-year-old.
“We had some conversations through calls and messages and he’s a nice person and understanding,” said Letshanaa after a training session at ABM yesterday.
“I’m very excited to meet him in person and train under him. Before he even started working here, the connection between him and the players is getting better and better.”
Letshanaa, who is currently the Badminton Association of Malaysia’s (BAM) No. 1 in the women’s singles at No. 60 in the world, hopes to reach a higher level along with her teammates under Jonassen.
Only world No. 43 independent player Goh Jin Wei is ahead of Letshanaa in the country.
“He’s here to make us better and his experience will help us a lot. I hope we will do well under him because everyone is expecting the best from him,” said Letshanaa.
“One of his targets is to push me to the world’s top 32 next year and I hope I can make this breakthrough. This is a tough challenge for me but I will give everything in tournaments to achieve this.”
Overall, it has been a difficult year for the 21-year-old Letshanaa but there were positive signs after she finished runner-up to homester Ni Kadek Dhinda in the World Tour Super 100 Indonesian Masters in Surabaya last month.
The 21-year-old also reached the last eight in the Malaysia Super 100 and made it into the semi-final of the Indonesian International Challenge.
“This year has been a year of ups and downs for me but mostly downs. Even though I lost, I also learned many things,” said Letshanaa, who suffered early round exits in 10 individual events the first part of this year.
“Legends and coaches say when you are down, you learn the most things because even a champion can’t be always winning.
“I’ve improved and my target now is to maintain this and keep getting better day by day.”
