Kuala Lumpur: The Badminton World Federation (BWF) had changed its schedule for the second half of 2020 several times over the last few weeks amid growing fear of the coronavirus.
Due to the uncertainty around COVID-19 and the desire to provide good warm-ups to its players before the Thomas and Uber Cup Finals (October 3 to October 11 in the Danish city of Aarhus), the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has decided to register all Malaysian players who will be playing at the Thomas Cup and Uber Cup Finals for all World Tour events leading to the Finals in Aarhus.
BAM coaching director Wong Choong Hann said it’s hard to predict what would happen in the next few months, that’s why they preferred the “enter first, decide later” approach for now.
“For now, we are going to register their names first. We’ll work on back-up plans if these tournaments are canceled at last minute over coronavirus concerns,” said Wong.
Those four tournaments were Taiwan Open (Sept 1 to Sept 6), Korean Open (Sept 8 to Sept 13), China Open (Sept 15 to Sept 20), and Japan Open (Sept 22 to Sept 27).
Wong also expressed confidence in the joint training between BAM shuttlers and the 8 independent shuttlers who were invited to train at Academy Badminton Malaysia starting July 15th.
“Those players used to play for BAM, therefore, it shouldn’t be any problems for them to adapt to BAM’s training program,” added Wong.
“Peng Soon and Liu Ying will mainly be practicing with our mixed doubles pairs with the hope of getting back to their rhythm and getting used to the intensity of the game. They will train with us twice a week. For others who are aiming to be part of the Malaysian Thomas and Uber Cup squad, they would have to be practicing full-time with BAM to improve their physical fitness and enhance their competitiveness,” explained Wong.
Independent shuttlers who will be joining the BAM team training at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) are Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying (mixed doubles), Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong and Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi (men’s doubles), Daren Liew and Soong Joo Ven (men’s singles).
