Huelva: Singapore’s newly crowned World Champion, Loh Kean Yew, will travel to Dubai to train with the Tokyo Olympics gold medalist, Viktor Axelsen.
Loh who spent one-month training with Axelsen in Dubai after the Tokyo Olympics benefited a lot from that session, which has boosted his self-confidence, and has helped transform his skill level to a new height.
“He will be going to Dubai after this to continue his training with Viktor for a short stint before participating in the India Open,” said Alan Ow – CEO of Singapore Badminton Association.
“He is going to return to Singapore somewhere late January, before departing for the All England in March,” added Ow.
The 2022 India Open is a BWF World Tour Super 500 event that will take place in New Delhi, from Jan 11, 2022, to Jan 16, 2022.
Some badminton fans were joking that Viktor Axelsen would probably benefit more this time around since Loh Kean Yew has improved his game drastically. Some fans even questioned whether Viktor Axelsen has regretted calling Loh Kean Yew to train with him after the Tokyo Olympics, because, he has created himself a strong rival.
Meanwhile, Loh revealed that he injured his right ankle when playing H.S. Prannoy of India in the quarter-finals of the 2021 BWF World Championships.
“I sprained my ankle when I played Prannoy. At that point, I was quite worried that I won’t be able to play the next day,” said Loh to Singaporean media.
He then aggravated the injury after defeating Anders Antonsen of Denmark in the semi-finals.
“After playing Antonsen, I got on to the bus to go back to the hotel. However, once I got off the bus, I couldn’t walk at all. Then, I sat on the bench waiting for my physio to get me a wheelchair,” explained Loh.
“So, at that time, I’ll be playing Srikanth in the final the next day, when I was pushed into the hotel in a wheelchair, I ran into some players from the Indian team, and they looked puzzled when seeing me sitting in the wheelchair,” laughed Loh.
Loh made history on Sunday of becoming the first Singaporean player to ever win the BWF World Championships title.
