Malaysians gear themselves up to excel in Thomas Cup Finals – Badminton Update
After shining in Malaysia Open GP Gold, the national badminton stars have turned their focus to Thomas Cup Finals which will be staged in Wuhan, China from May 20-27.
National squad will have to surpass superpowers of badminton world, China, Korea, Japan, Denmark and Indonesia, to secure the honour.
Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) has already arranged a central training camp in Dongguan, China a week before the commencement of this prestigious team event.
Malaysian campaigners had a good practice run in Malaysia Open last week where for the first time they captured four titles in an international tournament.
World Number one Men’s Singles shuttler Lee Chong Wei finally came out of bad patch and started a successful run by defending his title while the prime Men’s Doubles team Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong also silenced their critics by grabbing the crown.
The other two teams, who raised country’s flag, were Mixed Doubles duo Chang Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying and the Women’s Doubles experts Chin Eei h*i-Wong Pei Tty.
However, Thomas Cup Finals will be a huge task for them as they did not face any real challenger in home event and it proved an all-Malaysia tournament in the end.
National chief coach Tan Kim Her has already alarmed his shuttlers that they will have to jump through hoops for securing country’s honour and their performance will decide their prospects in London Olympics.
Malaysia has been blessed with an easy draw as its shuttlers will open their marathon by facing relatively weak contenders from South Africa.
They have fair chances to march into the quarter-final round as Denmark is the only strong opposition to them in Group C.
However, Malaysians will have to earn their spot in final rounds as top seed countries China, Korea and Indonesia will come in their way to glory.
It was ten years ago when Malaysia made it to the finals of this esteemed team event and they have not kissed the trophy since 1992 so national campaigners are aiming to sweat hard in training camp to ensure their spot at the podium in Thomas Cup Finals
2012.
Tags: