Kuala Lumpur: The Rio Olympic men’s doubles silver medalists Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong must strive for better performance and to achieve the key performance indicators (KPIs) set up by the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM), otherwise, they would face the risk of being drop from the Malaysian national team.
BAM announced on Wednesday that are in the effort of slimming down by reducing the number of its coaches from 17 to 12 and the number of players will be reduced from 60 to 48 starting January 2019.
Goh/Tan have been criticized for failing to win any championships since claiming the BWF Super Series Finals title in Dubai two years ago. Furthermore, they have suffered several early exits in some tournaments this year. Nevertheless, they have given the chance to bounce back within the first four months of 2019 or they will be eliminated from BAM.
“They are still in our plans for the Tokyo Olympics 2020, but they’ll need to reach the KPIs we’ve set up for them including world rankings, physical fitness and results,” said Secretary of BAM Ng Chin Chai after chairing the Coaching and Training Committee (C&T) at the Badminton Academy Malaysia (ABM) on Wednesday.
Ng also said BAM will hold a try-out in mid-January to select potential young players to join the senior team.
Meanwhile, BAM’s new Coaching Director, Wong Choong Hann believed Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong still can revive their career.
“I believe they are able to return to their best, I’ve talked to them and they are well aware of their struggles lately,” said Wong.
When commenting about Lee Chong Wei’s return to BAM, Ng said BAM will likely register Lee at next year’s All England to be his first tournament upon his recovery from a successful early-stage nose cancer treatment.
