Razif Sidek shows complete faith in national shuttlers – London Olympics Update
Former chief coach of Malaysia Razif Sidek is hoping national campaigners to defy all odds in London Olympics and declared the maestro Lee Chong Wei and prime duo Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong capable of fetching gold medals in the mega event.
Men’s Doubles legend Razif, who wore bronze medal around his neck in 1992 Barcelona Olympics, is positive that World Number two Chong Wei will shoulder his responsibility but in same breath he stated that the twosome of Koo-Tan also has the potential to
steal the limelight.
He said, “Chong Wei has a shot (at the gold medal) but I hope Koo-Tan will rise to the challenge too. The race is open and they must take their chances well.”
Malaysia has won four medals in Olympic Games and all of them have been secured only by the badminton campaigners.
The 50-year-old Razif has the honour of bringing first Olympic medal back home as he earned Bronze medal by joining hands with his brother Jalani Sidek.
Now when he is coaching at Kuala Lumpur Racket Club (KLRC), he is eagerly waiting for country’s first gold medal.
Razif stated that he has been putting his best throughout his career as player and coach but misfortune always haunts them. He hoped that this year national shuttlers will end a 20-year drought.
He said, “I have gone from a player to a coach but somehow the Olympic gold has eluded our Malaysian athletes. It has been a long wait. Hopefully, one of our shuttlers will end this agonising wait.”
In 1996 when he was national head coach, Malaysia missed a gold medal by a hair at the Atlanta Games and Razif still feels pain of that failure.
He recalled, “We came even closer to winning a gold medal when I was the chief coach of the national squad but Cheah Soon Kit-Yap Kim Hock lost to Indonesia’s Rexy Mainaky-Ricky Subagja in the final.”
He admitted that recent scoring format has made badminton more challenging as now the margin of errors is almost zero for the shuttlers.
However, he is looking forward to Men’s Singles and Doubles competitions this year in London as Malaysia has major stakes in these two categories.
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