Bangkok: Thailand’s badminton head coach Rexy Mainaky revealed that he’s not seeking to extend or renew his contract with the Badminton Association of Thailand (BAT) when chatting with Tan Boon Heong on Facebook Live last Saturday night.
Rexy Mainaky who won the men’s doubles Olympic gold medal in 1996 with Ricky Subagja, connected with his former protégé, Tan Boon Heong, for a casual conversation during the coronavirus lockdown.
Tan picked questions posted by his viewers by asking Mainaky that a lot of Malaysian badminton fans would like to know where was he all this time, and what’s his future plan as a coach?
“I am still in Thailand,” said Mainaky.
“My contract with BAT ends at the end of 2020, even with the postponement of Olympics, I already planned to go back to Kuala Lumpur,” added Mainaky.
“Me and my wife will go back to Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia for good,” explained Mainaky.
Even though Mainaky was born in Indonesia, and also won the Olympic gold medal for Indonesia, he, his wife Henny, daughter Geraldine, and son Christian were granted the permanent resident (PR) status by the Malaysian government in July 2007, while he was serving as the doubles coach for the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM).
“Have you received the offer letter from BAM?” asked Tan.
“No, the last time Kenny Goh from BAM approached me was in early 2019, but haven’t hear anything from him since,” replied Mainaky.
Mainaky also praised that the combination of Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong was a very complete pair, where they had strong defense and skillful attacks.
One of Mainaky’s most notable achievement during his stint in Malaysia was helping Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong in winning the 2006 Asian Games, 2007 All-England, and also guided the pair to achieve the World No. 1 ranking.
Towards the end of his tenure with BAM, Mainaky had many times poured out his frustrations over the lack of commitment from Koo and Tan during competition.
After Malaysia, Rexy worked in the Philippines for a year in 2013 before returning to Indonesia serving as the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) high performance director. He reached another height of his coaching career at PBSI when Indonesia’s mixed doubles pair Liliyana Natsir and Tontowi Ahmad won the 2016 Rio Olympics gold medal.
