KUALA LUMPUR: National men’s singles shuttler Liew Daren’s fear of his future in the national team is all gone after two meetings in two days with the new management.
On Monday, Daren and all the national players met up with Badminton Association of Malaysia’s (BAM) Talent Management Group (TMG) director Tan Aik Mong at Stadium Juara in Bukit Kiara.
On Saturday, they had a closed door meeting with BAM’s president Tengku Tan Sri Mahaleel Tengku Ariff.
The 26-year-old Daren said they were now quite clear with their roles and responsibilities in the national team and hoped to be given some time to get used to the changes.
“We raised a number of grouses in the meeting with the president. We are happy as we were given assurances that they would be looked into. It was also good that the president took his time to meet up with us,” said Daren.
“One of our complaints was about the hostel that we are staying now. As we are co-sharing with other athletes, sometimes its surroundings tend to become noisy and it disrupts our resting time,” added Daren.
The problem, however, is expected to be solved as the BAM have announced that they are planning to set up and expedite the construction of a new academy. The academy, to be built in Bukit Kiara, will include a hostel and an in-house gymnasium.
On Monday’s meeting, Daren said that Aik Mong had explained to them about some of the changes that would take place in training.
Aik Mong also briefed the players on his tournament plans as well as holding a national ranking tournament and an open selection trials.
“I have no qualms of going through the ranking tournament. And I think it is also fair to have an open selection trials. The national players are not intimidated by it,” said Daren.
“We also asked about our tournament plans and assurances were given that we may get to compete in the tournaments in Europe in October (the Denmark and France Opens). At least, we are now not in the dark any more,”
When asked whether there would be any changes as far as their coaches were concerned, Daren said: “For now, we have been told to continue training under our respective coaches.”
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