Penang's Goh Jin Wei won the KL Open Division Two title on Sunday.
KUALA LUMPUR: Young singles star Goh Jin Wei may get her lucky break after all.
The 13-year-old Jin Wei, who showed great potential in beating 18-year-old Slyvia Kavita Kumares en route to the Kuala Lumpur Open Division Two girls’ singles title at the Kuala Lumpur Badminton (KLBA) Stadium on Sunday, may get a chance to represent Malaysia in the World Junior Championships in Bangkok from Oct 23-Nov 3.
National singles coach Wong Tat Meng said he would recommend the Penang-born Jin Wei after discovering that there is no minimum age limit imposed by the Badminton World Federation (BWF) for the world junior meet.
The only ruling is that the players must be below 18 years old. For the record, Thailand’s Ratchanok Intanon became the youngest player to win the world junior title in Malaysia in 2009. Then, she was 14 years old.
“It just came to our attention that there is no minimum age limit for the World Junior Championships. Jin Wei has done well in two local Division Two tournaments this year and she has all the credentials to compete in Bangkok. We will propose her name,” said Tat Meng.
To date, the Badminton Association of Malaysia (BAM) have entered only two players – Ho Yen Mei and S. Kisona – for the girls’ singles event.
Tat Meng and his assistant Ronny Agustinus have been given the responsibility of naming another two more players.
Yesterday, five others - Slyvia, Lee Zii Yi, Lee Ying Ying, M. Thinaah and Yap Rui Chen – attended a selection trial at Stadium Juara in Bukit Kiara.
It was the first time that the BAM had conducted a trial for the world junior meet.
Tat Meng said he was told by the BAM management to conduct the trials.
“All five players will go through a two-day selection trial. It will be a round-robin format and we will select them according to their rankings,” said Tat Meng.
“We started the trials today. Yen Mei and Kisona did not have to go through the trials because they were selected based on their past results, commitment in training and discipline as a player.
“There are no trials for the other events. The BJSS coaches have finalised their players. The closing date for entries is tomorrow (today) and we will finalise everything by then,” added Tat Meng.
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