KUALA LUMPUR: The pain of missing out on a hat-trick of Commonwealth Games titles is enough to fire up Lee Chong Wei to go all out to achieve breakthroughs at the World Championships in Copenhagen (Aug 25-31) and Asian Games in Incheon (Sept 16-Oct 6).
Chong Wei had to skip the Commonwealth Games to nurse a thigh muscle injury and Malaysia failed to hang on to the men’s singles gold for the first time in 24 years.
It was a bitter pill to swallow for Chong Wei as he watched the last of the Malaysian challenger Chong Wei Feng snuffed in the quarter-finals on television and he is determined to bring back the cheers in the two upcoming major assignments.
Chong Wei is favoured to win the men’s singles crown at the world meet for the first time in the absence of Lin Dan in Copenhagen and hand the country the perfect gift on Merdeka Day.
Lin Dan will feature at the Asian Games in Incheon but Chong Wei has a score to settle after losing narrowly to the Chinese ace in the final in Guangzhou four years ago.
“It should be my last Asian Games appearance. I want to enjoy the outing and of course, I will give my best shot to win the gold for the first time.
“The field is like the Olympics and every four years, so I am determined to do my best there.
“I wanted to play in the Commonwealth Games as no one has taken the gold three times in a row before.
“But the doctor advised against going due to my injury as it would affect my chances of playing at the 2016 Olympics in Rio.
“It was not a decision I wanted to make and I was sad we could not defend the singles gold,” said Chong Wei, who together with diver Pandelela Rinong were announced as the Malaysian ambassadors for Samsung’s Asian Games campaign on Wednesday.
It will be a race against time for Chong Wei as he steps up training with two weeks to go before the world meet.
“I resumed training a week ago and I am not 100% fit yet.
“I am still on rehabilitation and I have to really take care to avoid a repeat of the injury,” he added.
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