Singapore — New badminton world champion Loh Kean Yew may have been born in Penang, but he has been competing for Singapore for many years.
On Monday (Dec 20), Tan Sri Mohamad Norza Zakaria, the president of the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) called Loh’s win “a wake-up call,” according to Malaysian national news agency Bernama.
On Sunday (Dec 19) Loh won the BWF World Championship title, having defeated India’s Srikanth Kidambi in the men’s singles final in Huelva, Spain.
In an Instagram post after the win, he wrote, “As always, I’m very proud to wear the 🇸🇬 flag here in Spain,” and has been quoted in the past as expressing the same sentiments.
He and his older brother Loh Kean Hean, another badminton player who represents Singapore internationally, came to the country as young teenagers and later became citizens.
It was unfortunate for the country, he said, that Malaysia’s top-seeded Lee Zii Jia bowed out of the men’s singles quarter-finals due to a blister on his foot in a match last Friday (Dec 17), when he was up against Denmark’s Anders Antonsen, who ended up taking the bronze.
But Loh’s win should still be seen in a positive light, Mohamad Norza added.
“It’s like once in many years this opportunity comes, unfortunately, we didn’t take the advantage, it also shows that we are not there yet, and also we are still relying on a few players, the task is to expand the chances by having more world-class players.
Whatever happened with Loh Kean Yew is also a wake-up call to all of us, but we take it positively, we are happy that Singapore has won it and the chase (to win the world champion title) is up to us, to bring our level of badminton to higher ground as soon as possible,” Mohamad Norza told members of the press.
The BAM president added that Datuk Kenny Goh, the association’s Secretary-General and coaching and training committee chair, has his work cut out for him.
“Of course we have to accept that we are one of the countries that are still chasing the world champion glory, however as I have said the players are all WIP (work in progress) — there are weaknesses that need to be ratified by Datuk Kenny and I believe that he’s coming up with changes very soon.”
But Mohamad Norza said he was satisfied with the players’ performances “overall,” adding however that “a more robust and aggressive approach to face 2022 and further empower our preparations for Paris 2024” is needed.
He expounded on one current weakness, telling the press, “We are too dependent on the same players, which should be reduced by speeding up the lineup of reserve players to compete. For example, I don’t think we have to depend all the time on Zii Jia or Aaron-Soh alone, and we can’t be forever dependent on Pearly-Thinaah and Pang Ron-Yee See.” /TISG
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