Kuala Lumpur: The World No. 7 mixed doubles pair Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying will not participate in training with the Malaysian national squad despite receiving an invitation from the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) in preparation for the Tokyo Olympic Games.
Instead, Chan told Malaysian media that they had obtained a letter of permission from the National Sports Council (MSN) to allow them to train at another training venue outside of BAM facilities.
“Liu Ying and I were relieved with that permission to train after not able to do so for almost a week following the implementation of the Movement Control Order (MCO) since May 4th,” said Chan.
“Now we can go back training at Endah Parade alongside few other players as our sparring partners,” added Chan.
“We are grateful to BAM for inviting us. We have already discussed this with Wong Choong Hann (BAM’s Coaching Director) on this matter and for now, we will continue to train outside of BAM,” explained Chan.
“In order to train at BAM facilities, we’ll need to self-quarantine for seven days before we can start training. It is going to difficult for us because we don’t have much time left and can’t miss out on training for another seven days.”
“However, maybe when the Olympics get closer, we will discuss this with BAM again,” said Goh.
Last Sunday, BAM invited Olympic-bound players such as Chan Peng Soon/Goh Liu Ying and women’s singles professional player, Soniia Cheah to join the national team training at the Academy Badminton Malaysia (ABM) in Bukit Kiara.
However, they are required to follow all standard operating procedures (SOPs) such as quarantine for one week before they can join the national team.
Frankly, all top Malaysian mixed doubles pairs, including World No. 11 Goh Soon Huat/Shevon Jemie Lai, World No. 13 Tan Kian Meng/Lai Pei Jing have all turned professional. The best mixed doubles pair at BAM currently is World No. 32 Hoo Pang Ron/Cheah Yee See. It’s understandable why Chan/Goh decided not to practice with BAM players because that would not provide them with high-quality sparring and training.
