Kuala Lumpur: Following the announcement made by Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) last Friday that they will be dropped from BAM at the end of Jan 2020, World No. 19 men’s doubles pair Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi are not giving up on their dreams of making the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.
“We were notified about that change right after we finished our training at the end of last Friday. We were shocked and saddened to learn about the news, but it’s completely understandable and we will not blame BAM. After all, we are kind of old and they would need to focus on younger players,” said Teo.
“Although this was a little unexpected, but we must look forward. Qualifying for the Olympic Games was the dream of many athletes, and also one of our goals. We know it’s not going to be easy, but we will continue to fight for the Olympic qualification as an independent pair,” added Teo.
After leaving BAM at the end of January, the 24-year-old Ong Yew Sin and 26 year-old Teo Ee Yi will be trained under Chew Choon Eng alongside other independent players such as Goh V Shem/Tan Wee Kiong and Goh Liu Ying/Chan Peng Soon.
Besides Ong Yew Sin/Teo Ee Yi, last year’s Malaysia International men’s singles champion Soong Joo Ven, two other men’s singles players, Tan Jia Wei and Ziyad Md Tah, and two women doubles players – Lim Pei Yee and Lim Chiew Sien will also be leaving BAM at the end of January.
However, no player is 100% safe in BAM right now, as the organization will conduct another round of player evaluation on the upcoming April 30th.
