KUALA LUMPUR: It may be summer time in England but the shuttlers have been asked to bring extra clothes to keep them warm when they leave for Bath today.
The six-member national badminton team, led by Lee Chong Wei, will leave for England tonight with a team of sparring players for an 11-day centralised training at the Bath University. This is part of their preparation for the London Olympic Games.
Besides Beijing Olympic Games silver medallist Chong Wei, the other Olympians are Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong, Chan Peng Soon-Goh Liu Ying and Tee Jing Yi.
Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) high performance director Wong Ah Jit said yesterday that everything is in place in Bath to welcome the players.
“Bath University is very professional in its approach as usual and everything is in order. However, the weather is colder than usual,” said Ah Jit in a telephone interview.
Ah Jit and a group of sports science experts from the National Sports Institute (NSI) and two chefs have been based in Bath since Sunday.
“The temperature is around 15°C … at times it even dips lower. It is cloudy most of the day and wet too. More rain is expected. The team have been informed of this,” he said.
“A few other countries are also here. China’s entire swimming team have been based here for the past one week. It is good that our shuttlers will have 11 days of quality training before moving to London (on July 23).
“It will be the final phase of training and will include many video sessions. Other arrangements will be made by team manager Ng Chin Chai.”
