Kuala Lumpur: The secretary-general of Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), Kenny Goh on Saturday declined to comment on media reports about the possibility of re-hiring of the 1996 men’s doubles Olympic gold medalist Rexy Mainaky.
When talking to reports at the Academy Badminton Malaysia, Goh said BAM would not comment on rumors that have yet to be confirmed.
“It’s difficult to comment on that,” said Goh.
“Furthermore, as far as I know, that the Badminton Association of Thailand (BAT) is still looking to extend its contract with Rexy until next year, so for now we do not want to comment further,” added Goh.
Rexy Mainaky guided Koo Kien Keat/Tan Boon Heong of Malaysia into their first international tournament at the Japan Open in September 2006 and Koo/Tan were able to reach the final. The young Malaysian pair then nailed the 2006 Doha Asian Games gold medal for the first time in three decades for Malaysia. Mainaky also helping the pair to achieve world No. 1 ranking.
However, towards the end of his tenure at BAM, he had several outbursts towards the pair’s immature behavior off the court that he thought might derail Koo/Tan’s career. After he left BAM in 2012, he worked for about one year as head coach in Philippine before becoming the technical and development chief of the Badminton Association of Indonesia (PBSI) in 2013.
Mainaky’s most prestigious achievement as PBSI was helping Indonesia in winning its only gold medal at the 2016 Rio Olympics, through mixed doubles pair Liliyana Natsir and Tontowi Ahmad.
He also achieved many successes with Thailand including propelling the Thailand women’s team as Uber Cup runner-up in Bangkok two years ago.
Kantaphon Wangcharoen also became Thailand’s first men’s singles bronze medal at the World Championships in Basel last year with Thai mixed doubles pair Dechapol Puavaranukroh/Sapsiree Taerattanachai claiming the World Championships silver medal.
