KUALA LUMPUR: Former international Cheah Soon Kit is ready to use his role as chief coach of the Looi Badminton Academy to unearth new talents, especially men’s singles shuttlers.
Malaysia are in desperate need to find new faces to take over from world No. 1 singles ace Lee Chong Wei, who is already 29.
Soon Kit said he was still as passionate to transfer his knowledge and unearth new talents despite having long left the national set-up.
“This is a new position for me. For the first time, I will be overseing the whole age group of players. I have 20 players under Looi Academy.
“My immediate task is to filter the groups and find new talents,” he said.
Soon Kit also plans to look into creating a platform for school-leavers, an area he felt had been neglected too long.
“Usually, some good players disappear after they finish their SPM (Sijil Pelajaran Malaysia). That is why I want to look at identifying some talent among the 17-year-olds,” he said.
“Most of the players representing the country now are from the national set-up. I hope that the clubs can also produce shuttlers capable of playing for the nation. Clubs can play an active role to help ease the burden of the national body.”
Soon Kit also thanked Senheng and Samsung for continuing to support the club’s efforts in developing junior players.
Senheng-Samsung have joined forces as title sponsors for the second year in a row for Looi Academy’s Junior Badminton Championships, which will be held from Dec 2-4 at the RM10mil Lee Chong Wei Sports Arena.
A total of 3,000 aspiring shuttlers are expected to take part in the meet.
