Ewe Hock vows to start programme for rising stars – Badminton News
The Malaysian maestro, Ong Ewe Hock feels that the national team needs young legs and he vowed to give the country new stars by launching programmes for young shuttlers in the near future.
The living legend Ewe Hock has made his entry in badminton world after a decade of being retired and this time he has a different role to play.
It seems Ewe Hock, who is now co-owner of a badminton accessories brand XTRM, is toying with many ideas as he showed intentions to initiate an age-group tournament before launching his own club for the youngsters in the next couple of years.
He said, “Xtrm is committed to giving priority to development programmes. In the second half of this year, we will introduce new competitions for Under-15 and Under-18 categories.”
The company is also planning to organise such events in China and Taiwan to promote their products in these badminton-mad nations as well.
Former World Number two Ewe Hock believes Malaysia saw their best time in the Men’s Singles event in the 90s when many of its shuttlers were holding the top positions in the world.
He thinks lack of young talent in national squad is the main reason that Malaysia just has one shuttler Lee Chong Wei at the top so Ewe Hock is aiming to form a club and vowed to give the country a few world class youngsters.
He said, “Two years down the road, I would like to form a club that will focus on producing world class talent. There are not many youngsters coming through the national team. Hopefully, I will play a part in grooming new stars.”
Former national champion bid farewell to the arena in 2002 and now making a comeback after ten years but in a different role. He admitted that he completely left all badminton activities after retirement but a brief coaching experience in recent past restored
his love for the sport.
Ewe Hock said, “There was a point after I quit that I didn’t want anything to do. Last year, I helped a friend to coach a club in Taiwan. It revived my love for the game.”
After his retirement, Ewe Hock made an attempt to form a club but it did not go well and he had to shut it down. The maestro utilised his brilliance in polishing the raw talent of the country and those youngsters proved their mettle in local circuits under
his supervision.
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