MALAYSIA’s supremo Rexy Mainaky did not deny the fact that badminton failed to hit the target in Hangzhou.
The Malaysian contingent had targeted badminton to deliver two silver medals and one bronze at the Asian Games but they will return with only one bronze through former men’s doubles world champions Aaron Chia-Soh Wooi Yik.
The hopes were on the world No. 5 but they faltered in the semi-finals stage, losing 17-21, 12-21 to the hard-smashing Indian pair and eventual champions Satwiksairaj Rankireddy-Chirag Shetty.
“As the head coach, I had expected for some to go further, especially the men’s team but we crashed out early,” said Rexy.
He had mixed reviews on the singles players Lee Zii Jia and Ng Tze Yong.
“Zii Jia is looking much more confident now. He lost to India’s H.S. Prannoy but you can see the fight in him,” he said.
“Tze Yong just needs a little more strengthening and some self belief to improve his game.”
As for the women’s doubles, the progress of Pearly Tan-M. Thinaah depends on the injury-prone Pearly, who has a minor back injury.
“There is a slight concern in regards to Pearly-Thinaah. We don’t know if they will be good to travel to Finland (Clash of Clans Open) next week or the other European tournaments (Denmark and French Opens) because of Pearly.
“Overall, they played good but in the match against the South Koreans (Baek Ha-na-Lee So-hee), they lost out physically.
“The experienced Koreans delayed the points and made it physically challenging for Pearly-Thinaah.
“If I were to compare our pair to the top ones from China, South Korea and Japan, Pearly-Thinaah can match their rallies but they cannot match their endurance and shot quality in tense moments.
“The other pairs are always more steady.’’
Rexy said mixed doubles pair Chen Tang Jie-Toh Ee Wei had been temperamental.
“They have shown improvement but they had a lot of doubt on their own capabilities when they played against China’s world No. 1 (Zheng Si Wei-Huang Ya Qiong). They found it hard to control their temperament,” said Rexy.
The Indonesian former Olympic champion admitted there weren’t much time left to quickly review existing programmes as the next big event is the 2024 Paris Olympics but some changes will be done.
“We will maintain the good but drop those who have stagnated our progress,” he said.
“The Asian Games is like the mini Olympics. We know where we stand and we only have eight months to better the results at the Paris Games.”
The bronze from Aaron-Wooi Yik is still an improvement from the previous Asian Games in Indonesia five years ago. Koo Kien Keat-Tan Boon Heong remained the last winners at the Asian Games when they won the men’s doubles title in Doha in 2006.
2023-10-08 01:04:51
#Badminton #Rexy #admits #charges #fell #short #target
