Kuala Lumpur: A total of 124 junior and senior players from the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) are set to compete at the Mixed Team Championships that will be held at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) from Nov 23 to Nov 25, in Bukit Kiara, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.
The coaching director of BAM, Wong Choong Hann, said the competition would follow the same format as the Sudirman Cup involving men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles.
“They will be divided into four teams. Each team consists of 31 senior plus junior players. Young players were given the opportunity to take on their seniors in the hope that they could gain experience and motivate them to work harder,” said Wong.
“The main purpose of this mixed team championships is aimed at allowing all players to feel the real atmosphere of competition due to the absence of real tournaments at this time,” added Wong.
Meanwhile, Wong said that BAM also wanted to create team spirit, along with developing skills for the players and helping them to bond with teammates.
Wong believed that through BAM’s training program and by participating in international tournaments planned by the BAM coaches, BAM would ensure it prepare the Malaysian players effectively so that they can achieve optimal performance as soon as the new season starts.
“We are not worried about preparing players before the start of the Asian leg tournaments in January 2021. We need to be prepared no matter what happens. There is no need to worry about the current situation if the focus is fully given throughout the training session,” explained Wong.
BAM has come with cool names for the four teams playing at the mixed team championships, including “Terminators”, “Avengers”, “Transformers”, and “Dominators”. Terminators will take on Dominators, while Avengers will play Transformers on Nov 23.
