Kuala Lumpur: Malaysia’s former singles chief coach Rashid Sidek told reporters that the responsibility for realizing the dream of winning an Olympic gold medal was not just on Wong Choong Hann’s shoulders.
On the other hand, he insisted it should be on all the coaches and players.
Last Saturday, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) had announced the appointment of Wong Choong Hann as a new coaching director in preparation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
Wong Choong Hann was tasked to work closely with coaches from all five disciplines, including men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles, women’s doubles, mixed doubles, to materialize the dream of winning the Olympic gold for Malaysia.
Rashid Sidek, who was also former teammate of Wong Choong Hann, praised BAM’s decision of hiring Wong as the new coaching director: “I’m happy with the decision to appoint Choong Hann. It’s a breath of fresh air.”
“As we know, Choong Hann has many new ideas. It would be interesting to see how he is going to deal with the current situation at BAM.”
“However, winning Olympic gold is not solely the responsibility of Choong Hann himself. In fact, it really depends on whether the coaches and the players are able to follow the program he will put in place.”
“In addition to his experience of being a coach, this is a new responsibility for Choong Hann, and it’s a big one,” added Sidek.
When contacted by reporters, Wong Choong Hann said he would probably start the job earlier although his contract would officially start on Jan, 1st, 2019.
“I will meet with C & T (Coaching and Training Committee) Chairman Ng Chin Chai and all the coaches upon my return from China on Monday,” said Wong.
